Smoking marijuana can fan the flames of desire

REGULAR cannabis users have more sex, a study has shown, and scientists think the drug may be stimulating sexual arousal.

A study by investigators at Stanford University’s school of medicine shows that despite concerns that frequent marijuana use may impair sexual desire or performance, the opposite is actually more likely.

Around one in 12 (8.4 per cent) of British adults aged between 16 and 59 have used cannabis in the last year, according to Drugwise.

The academics questioned 50,000 Americans aged between 25 and 45 about their sex lives and cannabis use. They found that women who regularly used cannabis had intercourse on average 7.1 times a month, compared with six for non-drug users. Male cannabis users had sex 6.9 times in a month compared with 5.6 times for non-users.

In summary, marijuana users are having about 20 per cent more sex than abstainers, and scientists say the study is the first hint that the effect may be causal. “Frequent marijuana use doesn’t seem to impair sexual motivation or performance. If anything, it’s associated with increased coital frequency,” said Dr Michael Eisenberg, assistant professor of urology and the study’s senior author.

“The overall trend we saw applied to people of both sexes and all races, ages, education levels, income groups and religions, every health status, whether they were married or single and whether or not they had kids.”

The study is the first to examine the relationship between marijuana use and frequency of sexual intercourse.

Previous research has linked cannabis abuse to erectile dysfunction in heavy users. However experiments conducted in animal models and humans have also suggested that marijuana stimulates the brain regions involved in sexual arousal and activity.

The research was published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.