Acute and long-term effects of drug use on aggression from adolescence into adulthood

Four waves of longitudinal data were used to examine the relationship betwe en the use of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine and aggression from early ado lescence into adulthood. The prevalence of fighting while using drugs (i.e. , acute effects) was higher for alcohol than for marijuana and cocaine. A s eries of nested structural equation models examined the cross-sectional and Long-term longitudinal interrelationships between each type of drug use an d aggressive behavior. While alcohol use was not significantly related to l ater aggressive behavior at any age, both marijuana and cocaine use were si gnificantly related to later aggression. In contrast, aggressive behavior d id not significantly predict later alcohol marijuana, or cocaine use. Overa ll, these data suggest that the longterm as well as acute relationships bet ween aggression and drug use vary by drug type and stage of the life cycle.