By Tina Vascani, illustrations by Darcy Muenchrath - Monday, August 31 1998

I hate to generalize, but I think it's safe to say that women's relationship with marijuana differs from that of men's.
Yes, we are all humans, and gender differences are often overstated and overrated, but men and women are different, and these differences affect the way we interact with marijuana.

Free Tokes & Perks?

One thing males may find it hard to understand is that for girls (or females, or women, or whatever you want to call us), almost all "intoxicating" experiences are shaded by culture and evolutionary biology.

For example, most women are physically weaker than most men. To be blunt, we can be raped by men, but we rarely are rapists ourselves. So for women, social interactions involving mind alteration can be potentially dangerous. We have to ask ourselves why somebody wants to get us high, or what might happen if we temporarily lose our connection with normal reality.

In social settings, many women feel they can't fully abandon themselves to the joys of marijuana intoxication because we know that some people might exploit or misinterpret our high. Some people want to get women high (or drunk, or bombed, or wasted, or whatever) so they can get us into bed. I've been offered far more free highs than my brother or husband, for example, for the same reason I have been offered far more free drinks, perks and other incentives than they have. Females are pursued as a commodity, and some pursuers see marijuana as a sensual enhancer which will make me more amenable to sexual activity.

Sexual Enhancement

Of course, marijuana is an enhancer that increases the intensity of sensation coming in through tactile nerves, helping me tune in to nuances of body awareness I rarely sense when I'm unstoned. Massages, ocean waves, sunlight on skin, the wind whispering in the trees, the caress of a lover's hand ? all seem more potent when I'm high.

And yes, at the risk of getting too intimate, I'll confess that cannabis helps me open up my mind, my breathing and my muscles during sex. Inhibitions and worries fade away as I become one with the moment, fully present rather than preoccupied with mental chatter. Orgasms are profoundly total body, sometimes almost too intense. Sex while stoned is otherwordly and transcendental.

I sometimes feel I have been spoiled: I want to be high every time I have sex. On the other hand, cannabis is a revealer, a teacher, a guide that helps me find places in my heart and soul that I can later access even when not high.

Feminine Intuition

The set and setting of cannabis use is very important to the type of high I get, and I've noticed during the ten years I've been using pot (I started when I was 22), that sometimes marijuana enhances my intuition to the point where I start sensing things I wish I hadn't sensed. Of course, women have long been suspected of having enhanced intuition; but when marijuana enhances my already-enhanced intuition I get a double dose of the ability to perceive things and make connections normally hidden from me!

To a large degree, intuition is influenced by brain structure. Scientists tell us that women's brains evolutionarily favour cerebral functions on the right side of the brain. This brain half controls intuition, art, abstract thinking, music, emotion and creativity. Men tend to have be more in touch with the left brain, which is responsible for linear thinking, logic, language production, and other technical skills.

I notice that men who get high a lot tend to become less left-brained. Their perspectives shift to a more emotive, sensitive response to the world. They exhibit more empathy, more compassion, more ability to see interconnections and synthesize new ideas.

Scientists who've observed brainwave patterns, cerebral blood flow and other brain states of stoned people note that right brain function tends to increase under the influence of marijuana. If the right brain is the domain of "feminine qualities," and if pot increases right brain function, we can logically conclude that pot may help men become more in tune with their oft-neglected feminine side.

Feeling Like a Woman

But who has the most intense relationship with marijuana ? men or women? I believe guys use cannabis more than girls, and are more prone to abuse it. By abuse, I mean that Read on at Source