Sh!t Sc!ence

At Sh!t Sc!ence, we try to show that all science, preposterous as it may sound, is useful to humanity and increases the sum of human knowledge. That is, even when the research seems to investigate something that is so bleeding self-evident, it makes you want to cry.

This week’s study, published in the Journal of studies of alcohol and drugs, set out to investigate changes in particular behavioural patterns under the influence of particular mind-altering substances in university students. You guessed it. It is a scientific study to see whether there is a correlation between the use of social lubricants like smoking weed or drinking booze, and… actual lubricants, i.e. having lots and lots of sex. The research polled 284 undergraduate students of the University of Oregon daily for 24 consecutive days. Results show, while most intercourse events were reported by people in committed relationships (unfortunate circumstances where marijuana and alcohol didn’t influence the frequency of intercourse), singles are more likely to have sex after a night of binge drinking or marijuana-consumption. Captain Obvious... I mean, Dr. Kerr, lead researcher from the University of Oregon, stated that “people may judge risks, such as whether they will regret having sex or whether they should use a condom, differently when they are drunk.”

Now, I can hear you say it from here: ‘Well, duh!’ But this is a matter of public health. Condoms, these beautiful instruments of safe-sex, are to this day the method of contraception that most effectively protects us from STIs. Not using them is considered a ‘risky’ sexual behaviour. In a state where recreational use of marijuana has been legalised, students are likely to be intercoursing like bunnies all over the place, and while it had been previously suggested that alcohol is linked with riskier sexual behaviour, drugs act on the brain in a very different way to alcohol and we don’t know what effect they can have on sexual risks. It is important to understand whether sexual health information needs to be tailored to these new circumstances. Thankfully, as Dr. Kerr states, contrary to the use of alcohol “we didn’t find a connection between marijuana use and poor condom use.”

So in light of this information, Imperial students, since we know that you are doing it all over campus all the time, do it well: always drink responsibly, don’t smoke weed, obviously (official position), but smoke responsibly, and always be safe.