Addiction Research & Therapy

 Peer victimization was defined as the experience among children of being a target of the aggressive behavior of other children who are not siblings and not necessarily age mates. More specifi cally, adolescent peer victimization was defi ned as any aggressive behavior occurring to youth in his/her teens and perpetuated by other youth and intimate partners. Most studies with larger samples, i.e. including more than 10,000 participants, found that victimization was positively related to cannabis use at multi-variant levels. Additionally, studies considering a broader defi nition of the victim status, including both peer victims and perpetrator victims compared to studies diff erentiating peer victims from perpetrator victims were more likely to fi nd a signifi cant association. In studies diff erentiating peer victims from perpetrator victims, cannabis was more likely to be associated with perpetrator victims. Th ese trends may suggest that cannabis use might be more strongly related to aggression, given much more studies found in signifi cant association between cannabis use and perpetrator status. These fi ndings are not surprising, since most cannabis consumption and aggression are expressions of problem behavior. In particular, cannabis has the potential to decrease the ability to accurately identify, evaluate, or avoid potentially dangerous persons or situations. In some, given the relative consistency in larger studies and those considering broader defi nitions of victim status, it may be suggested that peer victimization is clearly related to cannabis use.