CANNABIS USERS 'FIVE TIMES MORE PRONE TO VIOLENCE'

Young men who regularly take cannabis are five times more likely to be
violent than those who avoid the drug, a study has suggested.

Research showed users of the "chill out" drug were more prone to violence
than youths who drank too much alcohol.

One third of young men with a cannabis habit had a court conviction for
violence by the age of 21, or had displayed violent behaviour in the past
year, psychologists discovered after studying the behaviour of 961 young
adults in Dunedin, New Zealand.

The number of cannabis users with violent backgrounds by the age of 21 was
five times higher than that of non-cannabis users. By comparison, young men
who drank to excess were only three times more likely to have a violent
record than abstainers.

The results of the study were reported to the Royal College of
Psychiatrists' annual meeting in London yesterday.

Dr Louise Arseneault, from the Institute of Psychiatry in London, who led
the study, said people with schizophrenia or a dependence on cannabis or
alcohol had an increased potential for violence eight to 18 times greater
than that of people with no disorders.