Cannabis smokers have about 20% more sex than those who abstain from the drug, an American study has shown.

Survey participants were asked how many times they had had heterosexual intercourse in the past four weeks and how frequently they had smoked marijuana over the past 12 months.



Stanford University School of Medicine researchers found that women who were daily pot users had had sex an average of 7.1 times in the previous four weeks, compared with 6.0 times reported by those who denied using marijuana in the past year.

Among men, daily users reported 6.9 times compared with 5.6 for non-users. The findings were published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

The researchers reached the conclusion after a retrospective analysis of data on 50,000 Americans ages 25 to 45, compiled between 2002 and 2015 by the National Survey of Family Growth. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sponsors the survey.



“In other words, pot users are having about 20% more sex than pot abstainers,” said the study’s senior author, Dr Michael Eisenberg, assistant professor of urology at Stanford.



However, Eisenberg cautioned that the study should not be misinterpreted as having proven a causal link.

Given that the average couple had sex about once a week, he said, smoking marijuana could add up to 20 more instances of intercourse each year.

“I think if you asked a man or a woman, 20 more times to have sex over a year, that would seem like a lot,” Eisenberg said.

Cannabis is illegal to possess, grow, distribute or sell in the UK and recreational cannabis use is illegal in Australia. Marijuana is legal for medical or recreational adult use in 29 states in the US and the District of Columbia.

In July Nevada became the fifth US state selling marijuana for recreational purposes, opening a market that is expected to outpace any other in the nation thanks to the millions of tourists who flock to Las Vegas.

Nevada joined Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska in allowing adults to buy the drug.

In 2013 Uruguay became the first country in the world to pass a law legalising the recreational use, sale and cultivation of marijuana, and pharmacies finally began selling cannabis directly to consumers in July.