Researchers and other professionals have linked alcohol and other substance abuse to an increase in domestic violence many times in the past. But can cannabis help prevent domestic violence? Researchers from Yale University, University of Buffalo and Rutgers may be closer to providing an answer with a study that was published on Psychology of Addictive Behaviour in 2014.
Research showed that the more often married couples smoked together, the less likely they were to engage in forms of domestic violence.
The Research
The study took place between 1996 and 1999, following 634 couples first nine years of marriage. The main goal? Examine whether or not marijuana had an effect on both the husband and wife’s Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines IPV as “physical violence, sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression (including coercive acts) by a current or former intimate partner.” The study, however, categorizes it as an act of physical aggression.
Over the course of nine years, each couple took mail-in surveys. The surveys asked them to report any violence committed by them or their partner to measure the effects of cannabis use on IPV. After the first year, 37.1% of the husbands had committed an act of IPV. There was an average frequency of four times a year.
The husbands were more obliged to admit their marijuana use, with 28% saying that they smoked pot within the year. Only 22.7% of the wives admitted to their cannabis use.
The couples were not only asked about their cannabis use. But also if they had participated in other drugs use or consumed alcohol. The researchers noted that most studies on substance use and IPV focused on alcohol and that it is considered both