Marijuana-Smoking Couples Are More Peaceful Toward Each Other

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After following 634 couples over nine years, researchers at the University of Buffalo found that partners who smoked marijuana together were consistently less violent toward each other. In fact, husbands and wives who smoked together had the lowest rate of intimate partner violence. Published in Psychology of Addictive Behavior, lead researcher Kenneth Leonard, PhD, director of the UB Research Institute on Addictions, said:

“These findings suggest that marijuana use is predictive of lower levels of aggression towards one’s partner in the following year. As in other survey studies of marijuana and partner violence, our study examines patterns of marijuana use and the occurrence of violence within a year period. It does not examine whether using marijuana on a given day reduces the likelihood of violence at that time.”

If marijuana is directly responsible for the more peaceful feelings toward one’s partner, the effect seems to occur over time. But marijuana smoking isn’t the only explanation. Couples who smoke together may already share common interests and similar social circles, making conflict less frequent and thus the conditions for violence rare. For this reason, experts don’t recommend taking up smoking pot to quell domestic disputes: if you were both interested in smoking pot, you probably would already have started.

Despite the trending legalization of marijuana, NBC news writer Tony Dokoupil believes that a backlash against the burgeoning industry is innevitable. Find out why in his Big Think interview: