{"id":880794,"date":"2026-10-13T12:10:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T12:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/880794\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T12:10:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T12:10:26","slug":"marijuana-linked-to-rampant-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/880794\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana Linked to Rampant Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\tSign up to see the future, today<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Can\u2019t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph pw-incontent-excluded article-paragraph skip\">While the recreational use of marijuana is usually associated with a more peaceful mental state, scientists just a made a surprising discovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">As detailed in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/psychological-medicine\/article\/cannabis-use-is-associated-with-increased-risk-of-violence-a-systematic-review-and-metaanalysis\/FDD438B5E68A40466A1599C875C8C60B\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">meta analysis<\/a> of cannabis-related studies published last month in the journal Psychological Medicine, a team of scientists in the UK discovered a significant link between cannabis use and an \u201cincreased risk of violence.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">The headline finding was that they found cannabis users were statistically more likely to be the perpetrators of violent acts. They also found that the use of the drug \u2014 particularly among women and mixed-gender cohorts \u2014 was \u201csignificantly associated with an increased risk of becoming a victim of violence\u201d as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">While it\u2019s a classic case of correlation, not causation \u2014 the researchers stop far short of suggesting the drug directly motivates users to be more violent as we\u2019re far from reaching a scientific consensus on the matter \u2014 the findings \u201cunderscore the importance of addressing this issue at both a societal and clinical level,\u201d according to the paper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">In other words, it\u2019s a highly nuanced and complex relationship with plenty of other factors at play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">\u201cAs a clinician, I\u2019ve seen how heavy cannabis use can be a factor in violence,\u201d said coauthor and King\u2019s College London professor Marta Di Forti in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcl.ac.uk\/news\/cannabis-use-linked-to-higher-risk-of-violence-major-review-finds\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">statement<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve been cautious for a long time about how far we could go in describing this link, but a review of this size lets us speak with more confidence about the risks, while being careful not to stigmatise people who use cannabis more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">\u201cAs cannabis becomes more commercialized and legalised around the world, the conversation about its risks has focused mostly on the person using it,\u201d added coauthor and King\u2019s College London professor of psychiatric research Sir Robin Murray. \u201cThis review shows that violence, both committing it and experiencing it, needs to be part of that conversation too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">For their paper, the researchers examined 63 cannabis-related studies, involving just over 265,000 subjects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">The researchers found that cannabis users \u201cmay place themselves in risky situations,\u201d which could help explain the \u201cincreased vulnerability\u201d to violence. Users may also be exposed to \u201cpeers who engage in substance use or criminal activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">The risk of violence was also more pronounced among psychiatric patients. Previous resarch has found that people who already suffer from pre-existing mental conditions such as psychosis may experience \u201cpoorer clinical outcomes\u201d through continued cannabis use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">\u201cGiven the higher rate of cannabis use among individuals with severe mental disorders compared to the general population, this group represents a particularly at-risk population in terms of violent behavior,\u201d the paper reads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">The researchers offered some key takeaways from their findings. At the societal level, the researchers suggest that \u201cviolence should be considered alongside other established cannabis-related harms when developing prevention strategies, public education campaigns, and regulatory policies.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">At the clinical level, the research highlights the \u201cnecessity for mental health professionals to routinely assess cannabis use in individuals presenting with violent tendencies, particularly among those with severe mental illness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">However, to get a better picture of how cannabis use relates to violence, future studies will need to \u201cdisentangle causal pathways\u201d by diving into how, why, and when people use the drug in more detail. Other studies should also \u201cexamine whether reducing cannabis use through clinical or public health interventions leads to reductions in violent behavior,\u201d the researchers conclude.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph article-paragraph skip\">More on marijuana: <a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/health-medicine\/research-smoke-weed-older\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Research Suggests the Older You Get, the More Weed You Should Smoke<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up to see the future, today Can\u2019t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech While&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[97],"class_list":["post-880794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}