Study Reveals: Those Who Use Cannabis More Have More Sex

Compared to those who have never had cannabis, regular cannabis users were found to have sex at a higher frequency without any impairment in sexual function.

Even if you’re familiar with the many potential benefits of medical marijuana, it’s likely you may be surprised by this discovery. A new study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine has found that regularly consuming cannabis could have a positive impact on how often you have sex. The study is the first to examine the relationship between the use of marijuana and the frequency of sexual intercourse in the United States.

Researchers from Stanford University utilized data from the U.S. government’s National Survey of Family Growth to investigate whether cannabis use had an impact on sexual frequency in 28,176 women and 22,943 men, all of whom were just under 30 years old.

“An overall trend for men and women was identified showing that higher marijuana use was associated with increased coital frequency,” the study concluded. “And [it] does not appear to impair function.”

Men that had never consumed cannabis had sex an average of 5.6 times in the four weeks prior to the survey, while men who had used cannabis every day had sex an average of 6.9 times. For women, daily cannabis users had sex an average of 7.1 times, up from non-users’ average of 6 times.

“What we found was compared to never-users, those who reported daily use had about 20 percent more sex,” said Dr. Michael Eisenberg, senior author on the study, “So over the course of a year, they’re having sex maybe 20 more times.”

young couple and impact of cannabis on sex

So Does Cannabis Encourage Sexual Activity?

While the Stanford study found a positive association between the frequency of marijuana use and the frequency of sexual intercourse, it does not establish a causal connection between the two.

Still, the correlation was found in people regardless of marital and parental status, health, and demographic. The trend even remained after accounting for the use of other drugs.

“We were surprised to see the positive association between users,” Eisenberg said. “This was across the board: marital status, race, none of that mattered.”

The association was also found to be dose-dependent, meaning the more often people used cannabis, the more frequently they had sex.

Eisenberg said that the study’s findings suggest that cannabis use could play a role in fostering sexual activity. It at least indicates, he said, that the correlation between cannabis use and the frequency of sexual activity is related to more than merely the tendency that less-inhibited personalities that would be more inclined to use cannabis would also be more open to having sex.

“Usually, people assume the more frequently you smoke, the worse it could be when it came to sex, but in fact, we learned the opposite was true,” said Eisenberg.

Eisenberg and his colleagues hope their findings will encourage other researchers to investigate the association further.

You can access the entire study through The Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Learn More About the Potential Benefits of Cannabis

Researchers have conducted thousands of studies on cannabis and its compounds. Learn more about these findings by visiting our research and education page, and keep up with the latest cannabis-related studies as they’re published through our Scientific Research news feed.

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