There may be a huge social stigma attached to smoking marijuana, but if the observations of a new study are to be believed, then married couples who regularly smoke marijuana are less likely to indulge in domestic violence as compared to normal couples.

This study was a combined effort of the researchers from Yale University, the University at Buffalo and Rutgers University.

For the study, 634 couples were followed for nine long years. At regular intervals they were all made to fill up questionnaires regarding their drug and alcohol use. Besides this, they were also made to answer questions regarding the violence that they have been subjected to by their partner throughout their relationship.

On analyzing the data generated from these questionnaires, the researchers found a strong link between marijuana use and non-violence i.e. couples who smoked more marijuana had few fights.

Giving details about the study's conclusion, researchers stated that husbands and wives who used cannabis together, three or more times each month reported the lowest number of cases of violence.

The researchers clarified that their purpose to conduct such a study is not to show whether marijuana reduces violence at the very moment of its consumption. They stated that a lot of other factors may have come into play when we consider the non-violence aspect.

According to one of the researchers, "It is possible, for example, that - similar to a drinking partnership - couples who use marijuana together may share similar values and social circles, and it is this similarity that is responsible for reducing the likelihood of conflict".

The underline conclusion of this study that was published in by the journal, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors states that pot smoking users exhibited some blunt emotional responses when faced to threats and this reduces the risk of violent behavior.