Will they ban viagra?

Bit tongue in cheek really but it masks a nasty truth. One of the issues that is fueling the spate between Alan Johnson and, the slightly unfortunately named, Professor Nutt is the effect of cannabis on mental health. Professor Nutt in the paper which sparked off the row which presented to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies has rationised the argument trotted out by politicians of all hues (although Alan Johnson has been particularly stupid) that there is a link between schizophrenia and taking cannabis and the incident of schizophrenia is far far less of a risk when compared with smoking.

So why mention viagra? Well there is a clear and unassailable link between the age of a father when siring a child and the risk of schizophrenia in that child.

From www.schizophrenia.com

"Recent studies have indicated that children who are born to older fathers have a higher risk of schizophrenia. Researchers have suggested that the problem of damaged sperm could be the cause of approximately 15% to 25% of all cases of schizophrenia. This is believed to be due to the higher levels of DNA damage in the sperm of older men. Researchers estimate that compared to a male fathering a child in his early 20's - there is double the chance of the child getting schizophrenia when the father is age 40, and triple the risk of schizophrenia when the father is age 50. (though, for most people this means the risk goes from approximately 1 in 121 when a man is 29, to to 1 in 47 when a man is age 50 to 54)."

For obvious reasons one effect of viagra is to increase the chances of older men becoming fathers . So I would expect that in a few years time there would be a surge of unfortunates with that horrible disease.

So if one of the major reasons to ban cannabis is because of the potential risk of schizophrenia then viagra ought to be banned because of the much much stronger chance of harm ....

Will they? Like hell!