SEX AND POT -- THE ANCIENT PEANUT-BUTTER AND JELLY?

Canada and the United States are blue pill poppers when it comes to
the bedroom, but did you know that other countries and cultures use
radically different methods to increase endurance and treat impotence
in males? In China, for instance, men look to seahorses to alleviate
these sex issues, ingesting the creatures whole in dried form or
ground up in capsules, believing it will result in longer, harder
erections and moderate impotence.

The demand for the creatures in China is so high that, in 2004, the
Taipei Times published an article stating that the seahorse
population is diminishing, with over 25 million seahorses being
traded each year. The interest in seahorses as an impotence drug is
as symbolic as it is scientific - seahorses are the only animals
where the male carries the babies. Also, male seahorses perform a
romantic dance as to woo the object of their affection into mating.

As such, it is no surprise that other substances considered
unorthodox by the Americas have the potential to enhance sexual
experience, - such as cannabis. Until recently, research on the
connection between weed and sex has been undependable, mostly
because tests conducted did not regulate variables such as cannabis
potency and the effect of other factors such as caffeine intake.

However, a recent study published in Time Magazine by researchers at
the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation of St. Louis and the
University of California at Los Angeles deprived 20 male test
subjects of cigarettes, caffeine, alcohol, and marijuana for 11 days.
Their testosterone levels were measured, and they were given a daily
average of five marijuana cigarettes for the duration of three
months, finding a pattern of dropping testosterone levels as the
study progressed.

After the first four weeks since the first pot intake, researchers
noted a significant reduction in the body's production of luteinizing
hormone, one of the substances that causes the testes to produce
testosterone. Low levels of this hormone can affect blood
circulation, making it difficult to achieve and maintain an erection,
a condition known as impotence. By the end of the eighth week,
researchers found that the manufacture of follicle-stimulating
hormone, which is vital for spermatogenesis, also known as the
process of sperm cell development, where spermatogonia (yes, this is
the correct spelling) grow into sexually reproducing organisms
(sperm). By the end of the ninth week of the study, research found a
significant drop in the testosterone levels, averaging one-third of
normal, and in some cases in the range where a male is in danger of
impotence and infertility.

On the bright side, the same study found that after the final
conduction of testing, "every subject's testosterone level - and
ability to perform sexually - returned to normal," within two weeks'
time, if the individual's intake of weed ceased.

Although long-term marijuana studies such as the one above show
impotence potential, casual use for the purpose of sexual enhancement
has not had negative health complications associated with it. In
fact, pot and sex are a classic combination - dating all the way
back to ancient India.

Why is sex and pot a classic combination? Quite simply, cannabis is
the only other known source of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
outside of the human brain. THC implicates feeling of euphoria and
well-being, the synthetic forms of which are also applicable to
medicine and are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
which shows that THC is both applicable and beneficial to human use.

Back to the topic of pot ingestion in combination with sex in India,
which traditional Indian culture embraces - a concept which is
embodied in Bhang Ki Thandai. Bhang Ki Thandai is a drink composed of
the flower and leaf parts of the female cannabis plant, and is
commonly had in a mixture of milk, almond, and spices.

This drink is scholarly associated with sexual experience, in part
due to drawings found in the Mughal era, depicting a couple engaged
in sex while ingesting Bhang Ki Thandai and in part due to the
drink's origin - its consumption during the celebrations of Holi and
Baisakhi in India.

However, the concept that pot and sex are compatible does somewhat
contradict one of the side effects of pot use: the decrease of bodily
co-ordination. Furthermore, marijuana can affect judgement, causing
an individual to partake in actions they will later find
inappropriate, such as foregoing contraception due to the intensity
and immediacy of sensations due to the drug.

Although the experience of sex under the causal influence of pot is
not standardized, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. The most
recurring comments include: the intensification of sensation; the
fact that the sense of time is blurred and the duration of sex seems
longer; and, since the sensation is not centralized in the loins, the
experience of orgasm is magnified (or the lack thereof still
satisfactory).

Although marijuana remains illegal for recreational use, it is easy
to see how this combination is on most individuals' "100 things to do
before I die" list.