(Photo credit: Ryan Mannie/Flickr)
New research out of the U.S. suggests marijuana may not provoke aggression and violence like alcohol does.
Published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, a study on the link between substance use and violence among young couples has found marijuana to be an unlikely cause.
Unsurprisingly, the results show alcohol to be a major factor instead.
“Our findings were consistent with theoretical models of alcohol use and IPV (intimate partner violence), and previous research, in that the odds of psychological, physical, and sexual aggression were all increased subsequent to alcohol use… marijuana was unrelated to IPV.”
To conduct the study, researchers from University of Tennessee and Florida State University recruited 67 college men who were in relationships at the time.
For up to 3 months, they were asked to complete daily surveys on their previous day’s substance use and interactions with their partners.
The researchers then analyzed the data, looking for time overlaps between alcohol and marijuana intoxication and acts of aggression – physical, psychological, or sexual.
The results: While alcohol increased the odds of all 3 types of aggression, marijuana did not appear to affect any.
“Marijuana use was not significantly associated with any type of aggression.”
The authors add that previous studies have also found marijuana to have little effect on aggression, but the topic remains poorly researched as a whole.
On the other hand, a study from Spain, published last year in Neuropharmacology, found THC-like chemicals “significantly decreased the aggression levels” of mice – suggesting the effect of marijuana may in fact be the exact opposite of alcohol.
The study received funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Source Leaf Science
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