It might be surprising, but Playboy is investing in research. It seems there has never been a better time to study the interplay between cannabis and sex as during a pandemic — and Playboy, along with Eaze, has done just that. In fact, it’s a survey about sex, pleasure and pot during the pandemic. What might be less surprising is that the survey Playboy sponsored shows that more people are using cannabis while coupling than ever before. What’s less known is why, other than access to weed and sex toys. Of course, dating during COVID is a bit trickier, but the survey wasn’t focused on whether your coupling was a quick hook up or a lifetime partner. It was focused on pleasure derived from cannabis consumption and sex. Let’s look at the numbers.
More than two-thirds of survey respondents say they’ve used cannabis with sex while sheltering in place. If you’ve ever heard the term “cabin fever,” it’s applicable here. However, the stress and worry around the pandemic itself may have overall contributed to a decrease in sex drive, according to at least one study. Thus, this survey was focused on people who were still busy getting busy, and the ways in which they used cannabis — sometimes to accentuate the pleasure of sex.
But the survey found other interesting tidbits, like the fact that cannabis use increased while alcohol use decreased. This makes sense, as cannabis is medicinal and alcohol is more depressive. The last thing you want in a lockdown is to become even more depressed. Consumers also seemed to realize that flower might be harder on their lungs, as its popularity fell quite a bit, while concentrates like vapes and edibles went up.
More importantly, these concentrates “helped them achieve more orgasms.” This, of course, is a qualitative statement borne out by the survey responses, but it points to an important area that has, for some reason, not been researched enough: Marijuana’s effect on orgasms. It has been observed, as we pointed out, that legalizing marijuana seems to correlate to an increase in sexual activity in the places where it is legalized. What we don’t know, exactly, is how this mechanism works. We can theorize that it’s tied to the body’s endocannabinoid system, which relays signals all over the body through your neural network and a series of receptors.
The secret is out, it seems, as the Playboy/Eaze survey found (out of over 800 respondents), 14.4% reported “always” consuming cannabis before sex, 32.9% reported consuming it “very often”, and 29% did so “sometimes.” All told, that’s around 75% of people using cannabis to enhance sex. There was also a reported increase in orgasms, up more than 5% in respondents who paired weed with fun times in bed.
Unfortunately, the pandemic also had a negative effect on sex overall. Like another study cited above, this survey reports a 110% increase in couples having no sex at all because of the pandemic. Interestingly, a rise in cannabis use also seems to correlate to a reduction in masturbation frequency. Clearly more study is needed.
