Buffalo, NY: Wives tend to strongly influence their husband’s decision to use or not use marijuana during the first two years of marriage, according to survey data published in the spring issue of the Journal of Drug Issues. Conversely, husbands’ attitudes toward cannabis use do not significantly influence wives’ marijuana use habits, the study found.
Nearly 500 couples participated in the longitudinal study, which assessed spouses’ marijuana use at the time of marriage, and then again at the couples’ first and second year wedding anniversaries.
For both men and women, self-reported prevalence of marijuana use decreased over the transition to marriage. Among women, self-reported cannabis use fell from 20 percent at the time of marriage to 12.5 percent two years later. Among men, self-reported cannabis use declined from 25.5 percent to 19 percent.
However, among respondents whose wives used marijuana at either of the first two assessments, husbands “were more likely to start using marijuana at the next assessment.” Spouse’s cannabis use “did not play a significant role in their wives’ initiation of marijuana use,” researchers found. Overall, authors concluded, “In both cessation and initiation, wives appear to affect their husbands’ [cannabis] use more often than the converse.”
Researchers also noted that individuals who used cannabis were commonly married to partners who also used it.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500. Full text of the study, “Changes in marijuana use over the transition into marriage,” is available in the spring issue of the Journal of Drug Issues.