It’s the age old debate.
If you’re getting your rocks off, which is better – sex when you’re drunk or sex when you’re high?
There are people in the alcohol camp who reckon that the old beer goggles makes the whole messy business better.
But there are many stoners who say cannabis is the best way to sexual bliss.
Thankfully, though, scientists have waded in with some proper research to finally end the debate. Good old science.
Research by New York University basically looked at people’s responses to sex while under the influence of booze and pot.
While it wasn’t a huge or representative study, what they found were some fascinating insights on what gives the most benefits and which has the lowest risk of suffering some the the dangerous or awkward moments we all know can happen around sex.
Researchers report that sex on cannabis felt better than when you’re drunk, according to the men and women in the study.
They described their bodies as being more sensitive on weed and more numb and desensitised after drinking alcohol.
“The study found that both men and women reported longer and more intense orgasms on marijuana, with one woman reporting hers were ‘magnified at least by five times’,” according to The Washington Post.
Interestingly drunk sex last longer (probably the numbness) but the perception of how long sex lasted while high was longer because ‘the feeling of time can slow down on marijuana’.
Researchers writing in the Archives of Sexual Behavior also noted that both drugs affected the participants’ choice of sexual partner – but it was alcohol that people reported overwhelmingly reported had a negative effect on who they slept with.
Basically they said the drink ‘lowered their standards’ and that after a heavy session it wasn’t uncommon to wake up next to someone they didn’t even recognise.
So beer goggles is definitely a thing, then. But they found the opposite with weed – it didn’t seem to lower standards, although some people reported that it made them find their sexual partners more attractive.
Regret, shame and embarrassment were massive factors in the post-drunk sex hangover. But not with weed. People in the study said they regretted “hooking up with drunk chicks” because it lowers sexual standards and increased risky sex – such as not using a condom and ‘pulling out’.
Some reported that ‘anything goes’ sexually when they’d had a drink and were less worried about the consequences of risky behaviour in the moment.
Whereas people who had been on the spliffs said they were able to make good decisions and maintain some self-control – one guy even said paranoia on cannabis stopped him doing risky stuff he would try when drunk.
While it was only a small study of 24 18 to 35-year-olds who had sex on both weed and alcohol, hopes are that the insights will prompt further and larger studies into the two. We’re pretty sure they won’t be short of volunteers.
This article originally appeared on JOE.co.uk.
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