There’s been a lot of talk lately about a recent study which suggested there could be a link between cannabis and decreased fertility in men. The study surveyed young men under the age of 30 about their drug consumption habits. Among those who used cannabis, they reported a below normal sperm morphology. The results were in men who were reported to have likely consumed marijuana in the past three months.

Further studies have to be conducted, since it was Summer when the initial study was done, and high heat can also affect sperm morphology.

Now this isn’t a reason to start bare-backing it if you’re not ready for a kid. Whatever potential short-term effects cannabis could have on sperm has not prevented millions of stoners worldwide from procreating. Let’s not forget the result of all that “free love” the hippies were all about, eh?

Yes, happy, healthy babies have been growing up with pothead parents for far longer than the mainstream media would like to admit. And indeed, the way this study is being presented in the news, it’s certainly coming off a little bit as a “scare tactic”. With headlines such as, Choose Your Poison: Tobacco, Alcohol Don’t Harm Sperm; Cannabis Does, some men may be raising their brow and cupping the family jewels in concern. Now first of all, I don’t even have time to discuss all the myriad of ways in which tobacco and alcohol can actually poison you and have fatal consequences, which I hope would be of greater concern to young men than having the ability to impregnate a woman in the next three months.

But beyond all their attempts to promote fear and uncertainty, there is one question I’d really like to ask:

Why is this a bad thing?

I’d like to take a moment to remind everyone that women have been altering our fertility ability since at least the 60s, when birth control first became available. Women go to great lengths to prevent pregnancy by altering their hormones and using pharmaceuticals which have, at times, had fatal results for some women.

But now imagine for a moment, that it was possible to use cannabis as an all-natural form of birth control, with zero negative side effects and all the good ones that weed has to offer? Newsflash for the mainstream media: we don’t all want to make babies every time we bone. Imagine if this new science could be used to develop a form of male birth control that allowed men to prevent pregnancy until they are ready.

Not only would this free many women from having to submit their bodies to a faux pregnancy through birth control and all the hormonal imbalances that go along with it, but for the first time ever, men would actually have control over their own bodies and decision to procreate, without the use of a condom or other such means. Even better, the lucky fellas would be using freakin‘ cannabis to do so!

Now mind you, even if cannabis does prove able to prevent pregnancy, it won’t protect from STDs. Remember to always practice safe sex when not in a strictly monogamous relationship where both partners have been tested.

Obviously, more studies are needed and only time will tell what potential cannabis may have for planned parenthood. It’s still up in the air if the correlation between cannabis and sperm morphology is an accurate one, and it could prove to be hogwash. But in the meantime, let’s stop painting these results as a bad thing and start asking if this is just one more incredible way that cannabis could replace pharmaceuticals with something safe, effective and natural.