Drug use for sex – or chem-sex – is for many a reality. There are the legal drugs – though check the law in your jurisdiction – and then there is the murky work of the illegal, where drugs used for sex are often highly dangerous and highly addictive. Not only are these ‘party drugs’ illegal, and so there is the risk of falling foul of the law, and a prison sentence; there is, too, little control over the purity or strength. You do not know what you are shoving up your nose or injecting or smoking. This article in no way advocates illegal activity. This is the least you need to know if you are inclined to experiment with sex drugs. Users claim all manner of benefits when they take drugs for sex. Take care and be aware of what’s at stake.
Sex and drugs and rock and roll?
If you are going to use mind altering substances during intercourse, then as bottom-line it must be with full awareness and consent of your partner. Oh, and though some drugs might make you feel horny as hell, not all will give you a great orgasm, or even allow you to be capable of performing at all.
Substances which produce altered states of mind have been part of sexual experimentation throughout the ages. Many people believe that taking recreational drugs will help them have better sex. The statistics are telling: 28 percent of marijuana smokers admit to using it to enhance sexual pleasure, as do 26 percent of LSD users, 32 per cent of amphetamine users and 54 percent of cocaine users.
Sex and alcohol
Alcohol is the most commonly used drug for initiating or enhancing sex. Some studies suggest it is involved in as many as half of all sexual interactions involving young people. In truth, most people report that this drug is used mostly to remove social inhibitions. It does not appear that people actually enjoy sex more after drinking.
As well as helping to ease shyness and lessen inhibitions, it can also heighten sensations of warmth and affection, making people more open to advances. So great in social amounts but more can have a negative side. Alcohol can act as a depressant. Large quantities can make people tiresome, aggressive or violent, reduce physical and mental dexterity and cause impotence. Prolonged and heavy use is addictive and can cause long term health problems, including liver issues and increased risk of cancer.
Sex and cannabis
After alcohol, of the naturally occurring drugs, marijuana or cannabis (‘weed’, ‘dope’, ‘grass’) is common and, so users claim, scores very highly on sex-enhancing properties. Like alcohol, cannabis may be used to overcome inhibitions and for relaxation. It can also increase awareness and sensitivity of the skin and organs. In women, many claim that it increases the likelihood of orgasm. It can make sex more lethargic and leisurely, or make it seem to last longer through its effects on the perception of time.
It is worth noting that while a little cannabis can increase enjoyment, a lot can cause things to go downhill – especially with men. Large quantities of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, can bring about a dip in levels of testosterone – causing erectile dysfunction. The effects vary greatly from one type of the drug to another, especially now with the whole supply opening up as it is legalized in many places. New strains have been created, such as ‘skunk’. This contains higher levels of THC, and can thus increase hallucinations and paranoia.
Sex and E for Ecstasy – MDMA
If cannabis was the main drug of the sixties, then Ecstasy, ‘E’, or ‘Mollies’, ‘disco biscuits’, fuelled the clubbing dance scene of the 80s and beyond. Ecstasy is methylene dioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), a chemical originally used as a diet pill. As MDMA, it has been used in couple therapy in that it makes people highly affectionate and sentimental. This can also touch their sex lives by strongly enhancing sexual sensation and desire with feelings of intense happiness, affection, empathy and connection.
As Ecstasy, it then took the world by storm as a recreational drug – as clubbing burgeoned internationally. As well as creating strongly horny feelings of desire, MDMA triggers an urge to move – hence its popularity in the dance clubs. Often, it took the user on a psychological journey – which DJs could take crowds on through specially created music and visual effects.
Amyl nitrite, also known as ‘popper’s’ or ‘amyl’, speeds up the cardiovascular system and may intensify sexual experience when sniffed just before orgasm, although this does involve interrupting sex play at the height of arousal. Gay men use this drug to relax the anus.
Sex and cocaine
Cocaine is also considered a major ‘party drug’ and has been a popular recreational drug for centuries. It also has a reputation as an aphrodisiac: the feelings of exhilaration it creates increase people’s sense of desire and desirability. Users say that it reduces inhibitions and increases libido, and can produce enhanced feelings of empathy and eroticism. Whilst promoting these feelings, it can contradictorily either boost a man’s ability to have an erection or severely reduce it. And it has a similarly varied effect on women’s sexual response. The granular powder is chopped into lines and then snorted nasally through a straw or rolled banknote. Cocaine can also be smoked or injected.
A freebase form of cocaine, Crack (or ‘Rock’) is smoked – usually in a special pipe. Its effect is to give an intense though shorter lived high. Though it can create euphoria, supreme confidence, and increased energy, even trying a small amount can be dangerously addictive. Its rapid spread in the mid 80s was known by some as the ‘crack epidemic’. Such is its impact, users are mostly incapable of having sex on crack, nor have any desire to.
Sex and amphetamines
Where the sex boost cocaine gives usually fades within an hour, amphetamine horniness can last as long as twelve hours. Amphetamines are psycho-stimulants that also increase blood flow to the genitals – and so can make men feel like sex gods and women highly wet. Users claim, it all seems amazing and you can have sex for hours. The downside is you are unlikely to come – and such marathon sex can lead people to push their bodies into chafing or bleeding.
As with crack and coke, there’s the harder version of amphetamines – Methamphetamine, Meth, Crystal Meth or Ice. Make no mistake, these drugs are very, very dangerous. Their addiction rate even via casual use is high. Meth is a psycho-stimulant and sympathomimetic drug. Methamphetamine enters the brain and triggers a cascading release of norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin. These loosen inhibitions and allow male users to have sex for long periods of time. However good these upsides may sound, stay away from these drugs at all costs. Frequent users often experience severe psychotic hallucinations and experiences. They also tend to lose several of their teeth!
Sex and ketamine
Ketamine, which began as a tranquilliser used on horses, also known as ‘K’, ‘Special K’ and ‘Vitamin K’, is another ‘party drug’, first becoming popular in the gay scene. Like ecstasy and MDMA, it, again, is often used at dance clubs or during sex. Ketamine can come as a powder or a liquid that’s dried to make a powder. It can then be snorted (known as a bump) or added to drinks (not alcohol) or mixed with cannabis or tobacco and smoked. It can also be mixed with water and injected or come in pill form.
Although ketamine will likely make you feel very horny, it can also inhibit getting a hard-on or coming. Ketamine can lower your inhibitions, which might lead to unsafe sex. As the drug makes you feel pain less – one effect is to loosen reflexes such as the gag one or clenching of orifices – rough sex is more likely; it can lead to damage or cuts and bleeding that aren’t noticed. This may increase the risk of HIV, hepatitis C and other infections being passed on.
Sex and hallucinogenic drugs
Then there are the hallucinogens – or psychedelic drugs – again widely used in the 1960s, alongside marijuana. Of the natural forms, ‘magic’ mushrooms grow wild in some countries but can also be cultivated. They are similar in appearance to some poisonous mushrooms but contain the hallucinogenic chemical psilocybin. Their effects are similar to those of mescaline and LSD but usually less intense. Mescaline is a psychedelic drug occurring naturally in the peyote cactus with similar hallucinogenic effects. It is the drug Aldous Huxley took and described in the highly influential book The Doors Of Perception. Native Americans have used it for centuries in rituals and to add a new level to sexual experience. Mescaline is rarely available in its pure form.
LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as ‘acid’, is an artificially produced psychedelic compound. Tiny amounts produce hallucinations (either blissful or horrific), enhance sensory perception and intensify moods. It can make sex seem more pleasurable and experimental and increase feelings of closeness. For some the ‘trips’ are too distracting and weird to get your head into a sexual vibe. Acid is physically – but not psychologically – harmless and non-addictive. It may be dangerous for people with certain mental conditions, or predispositions to serious mental illness.
Opium is derived from the Opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. Its active ingredient is morphine, from which heroin (diamorphine) is refined. Opium is probably best known for its use in Chinese opium dens which provided opium and prostitutes. They were known as ‘fume and flower dens’, where the fumes were the opium smoke and the flowers were the prostitutes’ vaginas. Opium, and heroin in particular, can be extremely dangerous and highly addictive. Accidental overdoses are not uncommon. Just as well, it’s now hard to find.
Erectile dysfunction drugs | rock and roll?
A big change in sex and drugs has been the bringing to market of several medications that were developed for the condition of erectile dysfunction and that are also recreationally used for sexual enhancement, with the trade names, Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra. Although there is little evidence that these pills actually increase sexual desire, they certainly cause blood to flow to the penis and thus significantly increase capability. It is believed that there is a significant psychological impact in producing a greater sense of confidence – so boosting psychological arousal alongside this improved ability for physical arousal.
Apart from these erectile dysfunction drugs, many of the drugs used to enhance sex are pretty dangerous, especially if sourced off the black market. While the above is intended to give you a steer – and warnings – of what’s out there, solid scientific research on this is mostly lacking. We should also point out that many of these drugs can have different effects on different people, so you can’t even be sure that your partner is going to be in the same place at the same time psychologically or sexually. Even if you have tried a drug before, adding sex into the proceedings may change things radically. Take good care and be safe.