Ask Dr. Mitch: Coping With Cannabis

This feature was published in the March 2018 issue of High Times magazine. Subscribe right here.

Dr. Mitch Earleywine, the author of Understanding Marijuana and The Parents’ Guide to Marijuana, dishes on whether marijuana can help your sex drive, weed in the workplace, and prejudice against pot smokers.

I know there was research years ago, but I wonder if there are any new data on marijuana and sexual functioning in women.

Curious Georgina

Hi Curious,

Intrepid researchers at St. Louis University confirmed that the majority of women who choose to use the plant before sex report increased sex drive, more pleasurable orgasm and a better sexual experience without much effect on lubrication. These effects might only apply to a subset of women, but nothing turns absolutely everybody on. Those who like it really like it.

There’s no way I could work the swing shift as well as I do if it weren’t for my vaporizer. Am I alone?

John Henry Marley

Hey Mr. Marley,

New data suggest that cannabis can make adjusting to the night shift easier. Smoking a joint of weak NIDA schwag helped people working an eight-hour shift full of cognitive tests and boring questionnaires feel less miserable without making them do a terrible job. I’m sure it depends on the kind of work you do and how much skill you have, but I doubt you’re the only one adjusting to shift work successfully this way.

I feel like there’s still a lot of prejudice against marijuana users. If I wear the wrong T-shirt or happen to let people see my keychain shaped like a leaf, everybody acts like I’m dumb. When is this nonsense going to end?

Enoch Parks

Hello EP,

One of my students published data showing that when people think you’re a fan of the plant, they also think you’ll have a poor memory. Perhaps all we can do is come out to the world and then do a good job at everything we do. As accomplished, productive folks emphasize that they also use marijuana, the world will learn that the stereotypes are not true. So go out and do some good!