Cannabis, Sex, and Breaking Old Myths with Amanda Moser

Introduction to the Libido Lounge

Dr. Diane: Hey everybody, welcome back to the lounge. I’m so excited to bring Amanda Moser on to speak to you guys about her research. I got introduced to her by somebody you have heard from recently on the show, Dr. Suzanne Mulville, who is a cannabis researcher like Amanda. And I’ve learned that Amanda’s research has gone on for many, many, many years now.

Guest Introduction

Dr. Diane: So, I wanted to get Amanda on this show, too, because we’re going to dispel some myths. Like some of the things Amanda was telling me about ahead of time around the research around, hey, cannabis does not have to kill a man’s sex drive. Cannabis does not have to be this thing that is making it difficult for a man to achieve erection and all these things that we heard from this research that’s very old and very outdated.

Dr. Diane: So, we’re going to really talk about what’s going on with the up-to-date research, the cool studies she’s been doing, and why for both female and male alike, cannabis can be an amazing tool to bring into your health and your sexual practices to really drive yourself to this point where you are experiencing pleasure and joy and connection and all the beautiful things about intimacy on healthy steroids. So, welcome to the show, Amanda.

Amanda Moser: Hi. Hi, thank you for having me.

Dr. Diane: Thanks for being here. So, let’s go back to like the origin story, right? So, this is a pretty PRACTICAL thing and like myself being in, you know, the sex research world, it’s like some of these things we do are kind of taboo.

Amanda’s Journey into Sexology and Cannabis Research

Early Fascination with Human Sexuality

Amanda Moser: Yeah. So, I remember being a young girl and I’ll never forget my next-door neighbor had a book that her mom got her. She was about 2 years older than me. So, I haven’t received such a book like this, but it was a book on puberty and they had little drawings to illustrate what’s going to happen, what’s going on. And I always remember being really fascinated by this book. And I remember my friend showed it to me as a joke like, “Haha, look what my mom got me. Like, could you believe this?” And I’ll never forget I remember being like, “Oh my, that’s actually really cool and I want to know more about it.” But when you’re young, how do you tell anybody, “I want to know more about the most taboo topic that a child could bring up?”

Amanda Moser: So, kind of started there and then I really thought that it was just going to be some sort of side project like I’m gonna grow up. I’m going to have a big girl job and then maybe on the side I’ll read a book or write a book on this really cool topic. And it wasn’t until I got to college and I took what was actually only an elective course, but it introduced me to the academic realm of human sexuality.

Academic Awakening

Amanda Moser: And I’ll never forget at the end of class, I went up to the professor and I was like, “Oh my god, this is a thing. This is something that I’ve had a secret interest in.” And it was never in a sexualized thought process. It was always out of curiosity. It was always out of knowledge-seeking. And after I talked to that professor, he truly took me under his wing to find out he’s one of the very prominent human sexuality professors. Obviously, it makes more sense now that we were using his textbooks that he had written for his class and that a lot of courses use his textbook for class.

Bridging Cannabis and Sexuality

Amanda Moser: And that’s how I got into human sexuality. And then it wasn’t until grad school where I started thinking more about the scientific field of cannabis. And this was another evolutionary moment for me because once again I was in a place where I did not truly think that people didn’t take that seriously, right? Like people didn’t research this. People didn’t have a job that had anything to do with the science-seeking, knowledge-based, you know, of this topic. And it was once again like, oh my god, people are studying this. People are researching this. Like actual professionals, not just stoners on the street, right? There were actually business professionals studying cannabis and its benefits and uses.

Amanda Moser: So, I saw an island of cannabis science. I was on this island of human sexuality and I was like, how can I make a bridge and combine the two? And that is how I did a nationwide study on how cannabis impacts your sex.

The Nationwide Study on Cannabis and Sex

Study Hypothesis and Motivation

Dr. Diane: So, what was your hypothesis and thought going into this? Like, was it an initial hypothesis of oh yeah, there’s going to be some level of help and support with human sexuality and support with intimacy? Do you think, especially based upon some of the earlier studies, did you think you would disprove that or what was kind of that initial hypothesis and thinking around that?

Amanda Moser: So, going into it, I knew anecdotally, key word there, that cannabis can make your sex better. Word on the street said you smoke a joint before having sex, it would be mind-blowing. And then I tried to see if there was research on it and there wasn’t. And so, someone had to step up to the plate to scientifically see if cannabis does affect your sex and if so, in which way, positively or negatively.

Amanda Moser: I was really hoping that word on the street was correct. And I was really hoping that that’s what I would find because even as just a sexologist, I very much focused on sexual pleasure and the orgasm inequality gap and how women are not having as pleasurable sex or having as many orgasms as our male counterparts. And I was outraged. So, I definitely come from a pleasure-based background and I was hoping that word on the street was right and that cannabis made sex better. And that’s ultimately what I did find.

Surprising Findings

Dr. Diane: So, is there anything that you found in your results that was completely shocking to you that was just like a surprise result that you couldn’t, in some ways, couldn’t have anticipated?

Amanda Moser: Yeah. So, the very limited research that I had to base my hypotheses off of and research questions were saying that males would actually have a more difficult time or actually an inability to achieve or maintain an erection. So, that’s kind of what I projected my studies to show as well. However, I was thoroughly impressed. I was surprised. I was happy to show that that is not necessarily the case. Out of 811 participants, we did have close to 50/50 male and female, and the males were actually saying that cannabis made their sex better too and did not negatively impact their ability to achieve an erection, maintain an erection, or have an orgasm.

Dr. Diane: Yeah, I think that’s really going to be surprising for a lot of people because I know there’s a ton of bloggers online and these sorts of things that are writing the opposite, probably based upon those earlier studies. So, not saying that their information was quote-unquote wrong, just that that’s what happens in science. We get new studies out like yours and it’s like, oh, maybe we were not right about this.

Debunking Myths with Masters and Johnson Framework

Leveraging Historical Research

Dr. Diane: So, offline you had mentioned the Masters and Johnson studies and that the Masters and Johnson work, I think, was like the foreground for what is even still being taught today in medical school about arousal and human sexuality is still rooted in their work. So, can you tell us a little bit about their work and tell us a little bit about how the study that you did disproved any of the earlier work from them at all?

Amanda Moser: Yeah. So, I knew from a human sexuality background that Masters and Johnson were, like you said, pioneers in what they discovered, what they found, and we are still using it today. I found it so instrumental for my research because I took the Masters and Johnson framework. So, looking at sexual desire, looking at orgasm, right, and seeing how cannabis influences each of those stages. And I broke it up into not just orgasm phase but intensity of orgasm, the ability to orgasm, how many times you can orgasm, and see how cannabis affects that.

Study Design and Inclusion Criteria

Dr. Diane: So, then I’m curious, because cannabis is such a wide world, right? There’s a bazillion different types of strains, like they’re always cross-pollinating them. So, now there’s even more strains every year that comes out. It’s like this really artistic thing as it’s becoming. And beyond that, there’s obviously a ton of different ways that we can ingest cannabis. So, how did you in your studies actually say include or not include certain strains or, you know, what was the inclusion criteria around those types of things?

Amanda Moser: Sure. So, my research was a nationwide online survey. So, you can kind of think a little bit about how I recruited or maybe what the participants did for the research. For inclusion, you just had to be over 18 years old and you just had to have used marijuana at least once with or without sex involved because part of the Masters and Johnson framework, and a good way that I like to reframe it, is it doesn’t need to involve another person. So, when you think of masturbation, your body’s still going through that Masters and Johnson framework of desire and orgasm and resolution with or without somebody else there.

Dr. Diane: Yeah. So, then when you did this survey, I’m curious, were people reporting on which strains they were using for the research, or was it more just like, hey, go out, use cannabis, answer these questions, report back, and did your research really find that no matter what type of cannabis people were using, the majority found the improvement in their arousal and their orgasms and their erections and all those things?

Amanda Moser: Yeah. So, it’s really hard to study specific strains because a strain called Northern Lights here in Denver, Colorado, is going to be genetically different than a strain called Northern Lights in Oregon. So, I did not want to depend on strain type. And a lot of people don’t know if they’re smoking a sativa or an indica because if you don’t live in a legal cannabis state, then you’re just getting weed from Joemo down the road, and he might not always know if it’s an indica or sativa. But what I did look at was, are you mostly smoking flower? Are you mostly smoking dabs? So, specifically, I looked at forms and methods. The forms being the type of cannabis—flower, dabs, edible, etc. Method being, are you smoking it in a joint, in a pipe, in a brownie? What does that look like?

Amanda Moser: And I can say that the majority of participants did say that they smoked cannabis daily, that they smoked cannabis for both recreational and medicinal purposes, that they prefer flower, and that here’s the big thing: it does not affect their sexual decision-making.

Cannabis vs. Alcohol: Decision-Making and Intimacy

Comparing Substances

Amanda Moser: So, a lot of times research will compare cannabis with alcohol, right? Alcohol research, when it comes to the human sexuality world, shows that alcohol makes you make choices that you would not necessarily make, specifically in sexual settings. For instance, you might not be worried about STI or protection for that. Same with birth control, right? Same with maybe who you are engaging with. That’s for alcohol. And for cannabis, we have found that it does not affect their sexual decision-making. They are still wearing condoms to protect against pregnancy or STI. They are knowing who they are having sex with, right? They’re not blacking out. And if anything, it was showing that they are having more increased intimacy with these sexual connections instead of blackout drunk sex with someone you don’t even remember. That was not the case at all.

Dr. Diane: That’s a really, really, really cool finding that people are going to be altered in the state but be altered in a way that, hey, they’re going to make the same decisions whether or not they get high. I think that’s a really important distinction.

Delivery Methods and Results

Dr. Diane: And then I hear you on most people are using flower. Did you find that other methods of ingesting cannabis, like edibles or dabbing, were they still getting relatively the same results? There just weren’t as many people using those methodologies, or did you see any differentiation in the results depending upon that type of delivery method?

Amanda Moser: That data has not been published. Off the record, I have collected so much data from so many participants that I could have so many spin-off studies, right? So, at one point, we were talking about let’s just do a demographic study on seeing who’s smoking cannabis because I had a lot of people that were police officers, that were surgeons, that were people in occupations that you would not necessarily think were smoking weed on a daily basis, if at all. There was another finding that we saw. We had a large population of just people over the age of 65. So, we actually also talked about doing a spin-off study on gerontology and how cannabis affects that population. I can tell you that we looked at the different forms and methods, but none of it was scientifically significant to report on.

Dr. Diane: Yeah. And when I hear that, for our listeners, it’s like to me that just says, you know, if this is something that you’re interested in trying, then be open to the different ways of the delivery system and see how they impact you because that’s another thing that I’ve seen in these various methodologies is they do affect every individual differently. So, my hypothesis, if you ran that data, would be finding that one person would say, “Oh, yeah, edibles work best for this.” And another person is going to say, “Oh, yeah, smoking a joint works best for this.” That’s my personal hypothesis because I just think we are so wired so differently, and medications affect us in a unique way.

Amanda Moser: Absolutely correct. When I talk to individuals or couples on how they can utilize cannabis in the bedroom, what’s the best way, right? People come to me and say, what’s the number one thing, and unfortunately, it does vary from person to person. Everyone’s different, everyone’s body chemistry is different, everyone reacts to cannabis differently. I can tell you that there are some tips and tricks for utilizing cannabis and things that I have definitely helped teach people on what might work for you and kind of where to start, but ultimately, there’s not going to be a one-size-fits-all approach for this.

Libido Quiz and Sensate Archetype

Promoting the Libido Quiz

Dr. Diane: Hey everyone, before we jump further into today’s episode, I want to make sure that you know about my libido quiz at mylibidodoc.com/quiz. This is a free quiz I developed to help you identify missing root causes of low libido. When you take this quiz, you will be sent information specific to your quiz answers, including the top tasks that may help diagnose and figure out why you have low libido that your doctor may not be ordering for you, as well as additional tips and tricks to support healthy libido, desire, intimacy, and so much more. So, you can find that at mylibidodoc.com/quiz.

The Libido Code and Sensate Archetype

Dr. Diane: I want to ask you, my next question is kind of grounded in one of the things I have talked about on this show before is the libido code. And the libido code, which you guys can find at mylibidodoc.com/code, is a methodology of actually analyzing for what your unique turn-ons and turn-offs are. And one of the five different archetypes that when you take the libido code quiz that people will get is what I call a sensate. So, the sensate is the type of person that is really turned on by the five senses. This is the type of person that might be making out and they’re going to maybe interrupt the make-out session to go put on their perfect music and get the lighting right because not because they’re trying to interrupt the moment, but because they know so much that this is going to enhance their experience, right?

Dr. Diane: And so, one of the things you had said offline, Amanda, was in some of your research that you had found that there was an impact on the five senses and had studied some about that. And so, in my mind, I’m like, “Oh, this would be useful for everybody, but especially useful for those that have taken the libido code quiz and actually have realized that, oh, I’m a sensate.” So, can you tell us a little bit more about what you learned around cannabis and its impact on the five senses?

Amanda Moser: Yeah. So, my research looked at three main umbrellas, we can call them. So, we looked at how cannabis affects your sexual functioning, how it affects your sexual satisfaction, and how it affects your sensuality. Because my thought process was that you use your senses a lot during sex. And if that’s the case, let’s see how cannabis impacts that. So, I found that cannabis positively increases your taste and your touch, which, if you think about it, are probably the two main senses that you might use during sex.

Amanda Moser: So, I thought this was really exciting because if you think about it, if you are engaging in cannabis before sex and your taste gets enhanced, well, you know, your partner might really like that as well as you would too. And then, same for touch. People reported saying that when they are touched, it’s a lot more electrifying, and it feels more intimate, and there’s more of that emotional connection. And so, it’s really exciting to show that cannabis does increase your taste and your touch.

Enhancing Presence and Pleasure

Staying Present with Cannabis

Dr. Diane: I’m curious too because when I think about cannabis and pleasure, I think that so much of the time with sex, especially for women, but for men too, it’s easy for the mind to wander, right? And that’s something people have heard me say repeatedly on this show is the capacity to experience pleasure is related to the capacity to be present. And so, it’s so easy for the mind and the busyness and the overwhelm of our first-world life that we have here in the United States. It’s so easy for the mind to wander to the grocery list or whatever else that we really don’t want to be thinking about during our pleasure-intimate moment.

Dr. Diane: So, did you study at all too because I’m thinking when, okay, we’re experiencing that touch, that tactile sensation, and cannabis is helping with that. In my mind, one of the methodologies behind what could be happening there is that cannabis can help us maybe just be a little bit more present in the moment. So, then that touch that was happening, our mind is more focused on that versus, hey, I’m all over the place. So, did you think there’s anything like that going on? Can you comment at all based upon what you’ve studied?

Amanda Moser: Absolutely. I think that there are different components. I think there’s a mental component and then a physiological component that both could be potential answers to your question. For mentally, yes, I agree that I did have participants state that cannabis helps them be in the moment, is the big quote that I kept seeing. They feel like they are not absent-minded. They are very much present right there in the moment.

Physiological Benefits

Amanda Moser: But then you look on a physiological level, and we also know that cannabis is a vasodilator. So, with that, that could also theoretically maybe impact touch and how it might feel a little more electrifying. But also why you might get more turned on with cannabis because your genitals have a lot of blood flow, and when you incorporate a vasodilator, that is the best-case scenario for a lot of people for ultimate pleasure and satisfaction.

Dr. Diane: So, there’s different ways to look at it. And did you find anything as far as then timing because when you’re bringing up vasodilator, then I’m like, oh yeah, great, that’s like the blood flow, you’re saying that’s an erection for men, that’s all the zones that we need blood flow as women too, so all those are getting their circulation. Did you find that people reported that timing mattered at all, like, oh, it was important to start doing this 20 minutes before we want to be intimate, or was that not really part of it at all?

Amanda Moser: The big thing with that is dependent on which form and/or method you’re using, right? So, if you are wanting to use an edible to enhance your sexual pleasure, you got to take that maybe an hour or two prior to your sexual engagement. If you are smoking a joint, that hits a lot faster, but also kind of leaves your system faster as well.

Incorporating Cannabis into Foreplay

Amanda Moser: But I also love to advocate for if both you and your partner want to use cannabis to enhance both of your sex, I think it’s a great time for foreplay to incorporate cannabis into the act of foreplay. I think foreplay is so underrated, and more people need to be excited about foreplay instead of thinking of it as a chore. And I really think that incorporating cannabis into your foreplay can really spice things up a little bit.

Dr. Diane: Yeah. That’s, I think, foreplay is absolutely one of the most underrated parts about, and even some of the surveys have shown that the average amount of time that women and men are having foreplay is between 4 to 7 minutes, and that the average amount of time that men want foreplay is 18 minutes, and women want foreplay is 19 minutes. So, everybody is feeling like we’re just not getting enough of this foreplay. So, I think it’s a really good point.

Sponsor Break: My Libido Doc

Dr. Diane: Hey everybody, quick break from our episode to talk to you about our sponsor, My Libido Doc. One of the things that we truly believe is that great sex is available to everyone, but we just have to learn how. So, head over to our site to get your free copy of our ebook, Five Steps to Mind-Blowing Orgasms and Romance. Get the quick and easy tips to turn your sex life around, rev up your engines, and fall in deeper love and passion with yourself and your partner. So, if you just go to mylibidodoc.com, you will find that ebook there for download. Now back to our show.

Key Findings Recap

Sexual Desire and Orgasm Enhancement

Dr. Diane: Is there anything that we have not covered today about your research, about everything that you’re doing in the world, about your discoveries that you feel like, oh, we’ve got to say this today?

Amanda Moser: I can just do a quick recap on what we covered, just in case I missed anything. So, I did find, starting with sexual desire, that is, you know, how much you want sex, how bad do you want it? Are you aroused? Are you going to be aroused in the near future? And I did find that cannabis does increase your sexual desires. So, you want to have sex more.

Amanda Moser: It also increased your ability to orgasm. So, achieving orgasm was much easier for a lot of people. And when you did orgasm, I found that cannabis actually increases that intensity. So, not only are you more likely to orgasm, but when you do, it’s going to be much stronger. And a lot of people say full-bodied. Then we also look at orgasm frequency. How many times are you able to orgasm in one sitting, one setting? And I did find that cannabis does increase orgasm frequency. So, people are having multiple orgasms, specifically women or those with vulvas.

Solo Pleasure and Male Performance

Amanda Moser: Also talking about how the sexual functioning, those stages, and phases happen whether or not you’re with a partner, and that did show with my results that you also have increased pleasure while masturbating. So, that’s great. We don’t even need somebody else. We can have the same amount of pleasure just from ourselves.

Amanda Moser: For males and erections, we did talk about how cannabis did not show any inability to achieve or maintain an erection. Quite the opposite, they were able to have an erection, hold an erection, and orgasm with just as much intensity as women.

Surprising Lubrication Results

Amanda Moser: Females did not necessarily have a change in lubrication. I was actually very surprised about this because you think of cannabis as making you have cotton mouth, as the stoners like to say, or dry mouth, right? And so, I thought, well, if cannabis makes your mouth dry, it might make me dry down there too. And that was not the case. So, that was another thing that I was pleasantly surprised to see.

Dr. Diane: Yeah, thank you. Great synopsis and really great research. I really appreciate you bringing this to the world. Can we put a link to your study in the show notes? Is that possible?

Amanda Moser: Amazing. Yes, we’ll put that in the show notes today from Amanda so you guys can read through these stats and all this information if you guys are interested.

Closing Remarks

Dr. Diane: And thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for this amazing work you’re doing in the world. I love when old past research gets debunked, and we get to be on top with the latest things, and I think you did a really great job debunking those things and looking at this. So, thank you so much for all of that and for bringing this to us today. Really appreciate you.

Amanda Moser: Thank you. And thanks again for having me. This has been a lot of fun.

Dr. Diane: Yeah, it’s totally a pleasure. And thanks to everybody for listening to another episode on the lounge. Please don’t keep us a secret. Please share this with your friends and your family because we got to get the word out there. You can find me on YouTube, on Instagram, and check out our Modern Libido Club for so much more!