A new study has found that over 90% of parents who have used marijuana over the last year have also reported using alcohol.
Parents who have used marijuana and alcohol in the last year had some of the biggest risks for physical abuse in the home compared to non-users.
The study examined 2009 data on the impact of substance use on parenting.
“We tend to have this view that marijuana use has this calming, [relaxing] effect on people,” said lead study author Bridget Freisthler to MarketWatch.
“People who use marijuana, that’s not how they discipline,” she added. “It’s not that they have a laissez-faire attitude about discipline. They’re using all types of discipline,” added Freisthler, a professor at the Ohio State University.
Those individuals who used marijuana and drank alcohol over the past year, Freisthler said, “had some of the biggest risks for physical abuse.”
Over 92% of parents who had used marijuana in the past year also reported using alcohol over the past 12 months said the study.
The study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and was published in the Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions.
