Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Marijuana use is becoming commonplace in the United States. Over the past two decades, 29 states have legalized its use for recreational or medical purposes, and latest estimates suggest there are 22 million current users. A Gallup poll found that, in only three years, the percentage of Americans saying they currently smoke marijuana almost doubled, from 7% in 2013 to 13% in 2016, and with increased legalization and social acceptance, this trend will only continue.
A new study using a nationally representative sample of over 50,000 US residents ages 15 to 44 finds that all this marijuana use might not be such a bad thing, at least as far as sex is concerned. In fact, marijuana users seem to be having more sex than nonusers.
For example, women who reported no marijuana use during the past year had sexual intercourse 6.0 times on average during the past 4 weeks compared with 7.1 times for women who reported daily marijuana use. For men, these numbers were 5.6 for nonusers and 6.9 times for daily users. Increased sexual frequency was also reported by monthly and weekly marijuana users compared to nonusers.
These links between marijuana use and higher sexual frequency held across all three cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth, including data collected in 2002, 2006-2010, and 2011-2015, and they remained even after the researchers statistically controlled for any differences between marijuana users and nonusers in a host of demographic and health factors, including age, ethnicity, marital status, children, religion, poverty status, education level, body mass index, overall health, and pregnancy status. Furthermore, follow-up analyses showed that the increased frequency of sex among marijuana users was true of all demographic sub-groups: men and women, White and non-White, younger and older, married and unmarried, with and without children, more and less educated, etc.
Overall, 25% of men and 15% of women in the study reported ever using marijuana.
Correlation Is Not Causation
There are couple of caveats about this study worth noting. Perhaps most importantly, these findings are correlational and should not be interpreted as indicating that marijuana use causes people to have more sex. It is certainly possible that that is the case. Some animal research, for example, finds that injecting sexually inactive rats with a type of cannabinoid induced sexual behavior in 50% of them (whereas a placebo did not any sex-inducing effects). And across several studies of marijuana users, slightly over half reported it led to increase in sexual arousal, and three quarters noted it increased their sexual pleasure, subjective experiences that could lead to more sex while high.
However, it is equally plausible that marijuana users are simply more psychologically inclined toward sensation seeking or risk taking, and their more frequent sex is just another manifestation of this excitement-seeking trait. Longitudinal data (where the same participants are followed over period of time) or experimental research (where participants are randomly assigned to either use or not use marijuana) is needed to establish whether marijuana actually leads to more sex.
Furthermore, while the differences in sexual frequency between marijuana users and nonusers were statistically significant and held across demographic groups, the absolute size of these differences was relatively modest: 1 to 1.5 additional sex sessions per month. And this study says nothing about the quality of the sex people were having or their sexual functioning during these experiences (things like erectile functioning, lubrication, orgasmic ability, etc).
Finally, the question about sexual frequency only asked about "sexual intercourse" with partners of the opposite sex, so we don't know whether these findings would extend to same-sex encounters and experiences involving only non-intercourse types of sex.
These caveats notwithstanding, it's good to know that the increase in cannabis use among Americans is not hindering bedroom fun.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marijuana Users Have More Sex
Author: Zhana Vrangalova
Contact: Contact Information
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Website: {{meta.title}}
A new study using a nationally representative sample of over 50,000 US residents ages 15 to 44 finds that all this marijuana use might not be such a bad thing, at least as far as sex is concerned. In fact, marijuana users seem to be having more sex than nonusers.
For example, women who reported no marijuana use during the past year had sexual intercourse 6.0 times on average during the past 4 weeks compared with 7.1 times for women who reported daily marijuana use. For men, these numbers were 5.6 for nonusers and 6.9 times for daily users. Increased sexual frequency was also reported by monthly and weekly marijuana users compared to nonusers.
These links between marijuana use and higher sexual frequency held across all three cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth, including data collected in 2002, 2006-2010, and 2011-2015, and they remained even after the researchers statistically controlled for any differences between marijuana users and nonusers in a host of demographic and health factors, including age, ethnicity, marital status, children, religion, poverty status, education level, body mass index, overall health, and pregnancy status. Furthermore, follow-up analyses showed that the increased frequency of sex among marijuana users was true of all demographic sub-groups: men and women, White and non-White, younger and older, married and unmarried, with and without children, more and less educated, etc.
Overall, 25% of men and 15% of women in the study reported ever using marijuana.
Correlation Is Not Causation
There are couple of caveats about this study worth noting. Perhaps most importantly, these findings are correlational and should not be interpreted as indicating that marijuana use causes people to have more sex. It is certainly possible that that is the case. Some animal research, for example, finds that injecting sexually inactive rats with a type of cannabinoid induced sexual behavior in 50% of them (whereas a placebo did not any sex-inducing effects). And across several studies of marijuana users, slightly over half reported it led to increase in sexual arousal, and three quarters noted it increased their sexual pleasure, subjective experiences that could lead to more sex while high.
However, it is equally plausible that marijuana users are simply more psychologically inclined toward sensation seeking or risk taking, and their more frequent sex is just another manifestation of this excitement-seeking trait. Longitudinal data (where the same participants are followed over period of time) or experimental research (where participants are randomly assigned to either use or not use marijuana) is needed to establish whether marijuana actually leads to more sex.
Furthermore, while the differences in sexual frequency between marijuana users and nonusers were statistically significant and held across demographic groups, the absolute size of these differences was relatively modest: 1 to 1.5 additional sex sessions per month. And this study says nothing about the quality of the sex people were having or their sexual functioning during these experiences (things like erectile functioning, lubrication, orgasmic ability, etc).
Finally, the question about sexual frequency only asked about "sexual intercourse" with partners of the opposite sex, so we don't know whether these findings would extend to same-sex encounters and experiences involving only non-intercourse types of sex.
These caveats notwithstanding, it's good to know that the increase in cannabis use among Americans is not hindering bedroom fun.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marijuana Users Have More Sex
Author: Zhana Vrangalova
Contact: Contact Information
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Website: {{meta.title}}
