Pubdate: Thu, 12 Feb 2015
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Copyright: 2015 North Coast Journal
Contact:  http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Author: Grant Scott-Goforth

IN WEED VERITAS

It should come as no surprise to anyone who's done more than a 
cursory perusal of the World Wide Web that weed and porn show up 
online together - to paraphrase a psychologist in Jennifer Fumiko 
Cahill's cover story this week, "overlapping interests." But most of 
those Tumblrs and Instagrams don't really incorporate weed into the 
smut. The feeds are a string of images; a cheesecake photo of a girl 
in pot-leaf-print underpants, then a pile of buds. A bent model 
stolen from Swank, followed by smartphone snapshot of an indoor 
garden. A gif of dudes pounding away at each other, followed by a 
shot of a shirtless hunk smoking a cigarette? Whatever, close enough.

Actual weed-themed erotica is harder to come by, apparently. (I did 
not do an exhaustive search. If I'm wrong, please send corrections to 
my boss: But worry not! Filling the pot-porn void is a cast of 
hairless-from-the-eyelashes-down journalists at the Naked Weed 
Report, a weekly, softcore webcast that in some ways is a lot like 
this very column. (In many ways it's not at all like this column.)

Porn is not quite the right word for it. The six-minute newscasts 
feature a medley of young women awkwardly stripping in front of a 
green screen while they poorly annunciate teleprompter cues about sex 
positions, cannabis-related research and unoriginal but 
stoner-friendly "news." It's hollow and strangely hypocritical to 
watch a young woman unhook her bra while she badmouths Paris Hilton's 
career path, but the biggest question is, why does this even exist?

Weed news roundups are OBVIOUSLY of cultural and historical 
importance, and willingly naked women are cool, by most accounts, but 
who decided we need them to mix?

OK, but what about people who want their overlapping interests in 
ganja and orgasms to be a little more interactive? Enter High There!, 
the Android app that connects lonely weed lovers. The Tinder of 
marijuana was born when the company's now-CEO got walked out on for 
coming clean about his stonerdom during first dates.

Like Tinder, the app lets you browse local profiles for shared 
interests (read: hot profile pics) without having to worry that your 
puffing proclivity will bring the hookup to a grinding halt. It's 
unclear how much of a presence the app has behind the Emerald Curtain 
- - it's unavailable to iPhone users. But - serious question - do 
people in the Humboldt County dating scene need to worry that pot is 
a dealbreaker? Isn't some kind of weed activity or association expected?

If anything, it's probably Humboldt's sober singles that need a dating app.

A Reddit user recently took to the site to ask the classic 
coming-of-age question: "Weed makes me temporarily gay. Anyone else?"

Um. No.

But, presuming the post wasn't a scared-straight plant from the 
American Family Association (and there's a good chance it is based on 
this strangely unsubtle text from the post: "I feel very attracted to 
girls and not at all to men when sober, but when I get high I just 
want a big cock to suck and a man who fucks the shit out of me"), 
maybe there's an explanation. And it's not the phallic imagery (ahem, 
bong users) permeating weed culture.

In last year's article succinctly titled "Fucking Stoned: The Search 
for a Weed-Based Aphrodisiac," sex experts told Motherboard that 
cannabis can be arousing, but more likely reinforces "whatever level 
of sexual interest a user is already experiencing."

Author Susie Bright recommended small to moderate doses of pot to 
enhance arousal for those disinclined to sleepiness and paranoia, but 
added, "it's hard to identify universal truths when it comes to 
cannabis and pleasure."

Indeed, little research has been done on cannabis' loin-igniting 
effects, but pot has been used as a Reefer Madness scapegoat for 
sexual deviance and violence. Of course, being attracted to dudes is 
neither of those. So embrace the feeling, Redditor. Or don't. 
Whatever makes you happy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom