Reply #69: If your goal is to reduce the cases of schizophrenia (as oppossed to trashing pot)

[McCamy Taylor]

research into ways to prevent maternal infection with influenza seems to be a fertile area for study. Here is a link about the association.

http://biotechfiles.com/2009/05/schizophrenia-and-influenza-infection/

When I see articles like the "pot causes schizophrenia" one in which some government is prepared to throw millions at researchers in hopes that they will come up with some reason to justify their current policies, I have to ask myself "Wouldn't the same millions be better spent trying to vaccinate all women planning pregnancy against flu?"

BTW, there is a reason that conservative governments want to keep widely used and relatively benign/cheap drugs like pot illegal. The government likes to have as many ways to make criminals of people as possible. That way, folks who do relatively normal things like smoke a joint after work (instead of chugging a six pack) will have a vulnerability which will make them hesitate to bring the attention of the authorities to themselves. That means that they will not become vocal critics of the government. The whole Martha Stewart fiasco, in which she was actually convicted of defrauding her own stockholders but the public was told she went to jail for listening to a tip from her stock broker is pretty much the same thing. When you have wiretapped the calls/emails of all your political enemies and when you can tell them "You got a tip from your stockbroker. You know you can go to jail for that" your political enemies tend to keep their mouths shut.

Making certain sex acts between consensual adults crimes serves the same purpose.