Zeusthecat

Also keep in mind that the stuff you are buying legally is likely of a much higher quality than what you might get illegally. Even when buying illegally, good hydro typically costs at least 5x as much as the shitty dirt weed that most people smoke.

Yes, vegetarians eat eggs.

This has always been really frustrating for me. There are a lot of restaurants that either have no vegetarian option on the menu or you are limited to just getting a house salad or some other modified dish. I think it's better now than when I was growing up but you would think there would be a more even split.

I thought we could conduct this conversation respectfully. I think it is an interesting conversation and I would appreciate it if people could be respectful of each other's choices and avoid hyperbole and personal attacks.

Just wanted to point out that there are two that contain all 9. Soybeans and hemp seeds. Rice and beans together also get you all 9 so that is a pretty easy option too.

At least here in the US these are inextricably tied together. The fact that cannabis is classified as a schedule 1 narcotic means that it is illegal to grow cannabis at all, even if it is of the variety that has little to no THC (which means all of our hemp products typically have to be imported). So at least for us, these are all important issues to consider together to build the case for why cannabis should not be classified as a schedule 1 narcotic. As for medical use, there is a lot of really compelling data to suggest that, yes, it really could be a game changer. Some of the data is pretty definitive, such as its benefits for treating epilepsy, and some of it requires further research. But as long as it is classified as a schedule 1 narcotic, there are limits to how effectively it can be researched. Plus I think it is important to consider that using MJ for medical use is typically much safer and has much fewer side effects than a lot of the prescription drugs out there. As for straight up legalizing for recreational use, why not? Consider that alcohol and tobacco are legal and both do far more harm to the human body than MJ does. In fact, I am not aware of there ever being a single reported death caused by MJ use (unless you count someone having some kind of accident while they are high which is even more of a risk with alcohol), whereas countless people die from alcohol and tobacco consumption every year. And maybe you could find something somewhere of someone getting lung cancer from chronic chronic smoking but I bet that would be hard to find because even chronic MJ users are likely only inhaling a few lungfuls of that smoke a day compared to hundreds or thousands of lungfuls of smoke that a tobacco user might inhale. And if you vape or consume it in some other manner that risk vanishes entirely. But what about the harm to the brain? If you go to any government website, yeah, you will probably hear about the horrors of MJ use and how it fucks up your brain. The reality is that more and more research is showing that that isn't really the case and that in a lot of cases the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. I think the study I linked is a good example that shows for chronic long time users (and this is really a fringe case here as most people are not going to be getting high 3 times a day), while there were downsides, they also observed that connections between neurons in the brain were stronger on average than those who didn't smoke. So yes, if you smoke it constantly for a long period of time there is undoubtedly some elevated risk for certain things. But the same could be said for chronic caffeine consumption (which is actually chemically addictive), chronic food consumption, or chronic alcohol/tobacco consumption. So it is really a moot point and absolutely not a valid basis for why it should remain illegal as virtually everything we consume has risks if we do so in excess. And there is the simple fact of the matter that criminalization is clearly not working. People are smoking it anyways at very high rates and it has become a fucking joke. It is used by every demographic of person from the rich to the poor and the uneducated to the highly educated. It is just absolutely silly. Here is a good article to read that sums up why Sanjay Gupta (yeah, I know, celebrity doctor, can't be trusted yada yada) reversed course on this and is now a huge proponent. If you are doubting any of what I am saying, I highly recommend you read this and other articles like it: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/08/health/gupta-changed-mind-marijuana/

I'm sorry but where did I conflate cannabinoids with hemp as a fibrous material? And I fail to see how there is any evidence to support the claims you are making. Even with the schizophrenia thing, there is conflicting evidence considering it is hard to know whether a person developed schizophrenia because of smoking weed or whether they used weed as a way to cope with the fact that they were developing schizophrenia.

Dude, I'm sorry but this is just absolutely false. You can literally find all of the essential nutrients on a purely plant based diet. You have soybeans, hemp seeds, rice/bean combo, or just a wide mix of veggies to get your complete proteins, nutritional yeast for vitamin B12, and so on and so on.

Hey, thanks for the kind words miffy. Now, getting down to business and starting with some of the usages and benefits of cannabis. (I would encourage people to read the entire articles in these links if they have time, especially if this is new information) Let's start with the nutritional value of hemp seeds. They are basically super fucking healthy and one of the only naturally occurring foods that contain all 9 essential amino acids (thus making it a complete protein). Here is a link with a good nutritional analysis of hemp seeds (full disclosure, I put that shit on everything and have replaced cow's milk with hemp milk in my diet as I found it actually has a pretty good flavor compared to soy milk): http://www.purehealingfoods.com/hempHeartsAnalysis.php Hempcrete. It turns out I exaggerated a bit on it's insulating properties so my apologies for that (although it is still a decent insulator). But this article does a pretty good job laying out the advantages it has over lumber: http://magazine.good.is/articles/a-house-of-hemp Hemp vs lumber. Almost everything we use lumber for can be made more efficiently and with less impact to the environment if it were made with hemp instead (and in fact, Marijuana became illegal due to concerted efforts by the lumber industry to get it banned back in the 1930's (and they even went as far as to appeal to the white man's fear of the black man to help it gain traction)). Here is one article: http://www.ehow.com/info_8748052_hemp-vs-wood.html. Here is another http://didyouknow.org/hemp/ Medical benefits of marijuana. The list is fucking staggering. Read up on some of this and ask yourself how the fuck we ended up in a society where this isn't widely available for medical use. http://www.businessinsider.com/health-benefits-of-medical-marijuana-2014-4. And amazingly, here is a story of a 5 year old girl with a severe form of epilepsy who went from having hundreds of seizures a week to only one small episode each month thanks to medical marijuana: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharda-sekaran/sanjay-gupta-medical-marijuana_b_3733143.html On oxygen production, I couldn't find a goddamn thing to support what I said so I retract my statement that it produces more oxygen than trees. From what I was able to find, it looks like it's oxygen production is similar to other plants. Climates hemp can grow in and how it compares to cotton. Long story short, it is superior to cotton in many ways. It consumes less water, no pesticides are required, and overall it is just a better material to make cloth from. I like the way this article lays it out: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/07/17/hemp-vs-cotton-the-ultimate-showdown/. This article touches briefly on the variety of climates it can grow in: http://www.hempbasics.com/shop/hemp-information. Specifically this excerpt: Now as far as the benefits of legalization go, I think most of what I provided in my original post is pretty self evident. Since there isn't a lot of hard data on this yet, it is mostly speculation at this point but I don't see how you could argue against the fact that it would bring in more tax revenue, reduce the amount of people incarcerated for drug offenses, reduce the negative impacts from cartels distributing it illegally, allow police departments to re-allocate funding that is currently being spent on busting people for possession and distribution, and create entirely new industries and jobs. What I find interesting though is that I can't really think of any downsides to legalizing it. Sure there are people that still argue against it but from what I have seen none of those arguments really hold up to reality. I am super biased on this though so perhaps someone here can present an example or two showing how legalizing it might have some negative impacts.

All the more reason for widespread legalization. Especially at the federal level.

I think it is also worth noting that there are actually some conflicting studies on whether or not being high on MJ actually impairs driving, and certainly not in the way alcohol does. But of course a lot of how impaired a person is will also depend on the strain that they consumed and other factors. DUI laws in general are really fucked up anyways and there is little room for nuance. Edit: Thank you for posting that tegan. That is one of my favorite scenes in any movie ever.

Well that settles that. Topic updated.

Hehehehehehehehe. That list should be way way longer.

Oh man Twig, you don't know what you just fucking unleashed! Unfortunately I am at work and I won't dare try to provide links but here is a brief list of benefits that cannabis provides (I'll try to expand more on this later): Hemp seeds are one of the most nutritious foods on earth. Hemp + lime juice + sand = hempcrete. Some houses have been made using hempcrete and not only is it super insulating, but super cheap and environmentally friendly. These are the houses of the future. Hemp paper. A very long list of medical benefits from helping with cancer to minimizing the effects of epilepsy. I need to find a solid link for this but apparently an acre of cannabis produces more oxygen than an acre of trees. It can grow in almost any climate. Hemp clothing. And it has a much smaller footprint and is less wasteful than growing cotton. Then there is a long list of benefits that legalizing it would bring to society: More tax revenue for local and federal governments. Reduced impact from cartels distributing it illegally. Lower prison populations thanks to this being one less thing people can be arrested for. Some funding for police departments freed up to focus on actual important stuff. New industries opened up creating more jobs. Probably other stuff too. I rushed through this post much faster than I typically do so it is probably a bit exaggerated and hyperbolic. I'll stop in later and provide some more specific and coherent thoughts.

If I hadn't already created this bullshit thread today I would totally start a new one about legalization so we could continue this discussion as it is a topic I find super interesting. But I think I've been overbearing enough already.

I think that is a bit of an appeal to nature type of argument and I'm not sure that it holds. Just because it is 'natural' doesn't mean it isn't bad. And what is natural really? Could an argument be made that social marginalizations are just as natural because they came from us and we came from nature?

That is, unless it was legal to grow cannabis. From what I understand, cannabis can grow just about anywhere and hemp seeds are one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. But that's probably another topic for another day.

No worries man, you are raising some good issues. Tying it back to one of my original points, it is interesting to contrast our attitude towards meat consumption to our attitude towards other social issues. A lot of people in this thread seem to agree that yeah, it is hard to argue that it is wrong but it is just something that they are not willing to give up. If we can recognize how difficult it is to actually follow through with this and are unable to cut meat out of our diets because of the myriad of social and environmental factors that encourage us to keep eating it, maybe that provides some valuable insight into why a lot of people would rather maintain the status quo as it pertains to other social issues. By all means, we should continue to strive for equality and all of the hot button issues that are discussed on here are super important. But I think it is also important to evaluate ourselves and our own failings and reflect on the fact that none of us are perfect and maybe we have some of the same failings as some of those assholes on the other side of the internet.

Those are absolutely also important issues to consider. I see what you are saying about the moral high horse position that a lot of vegetarians and vegans take but I don't think that is relevant to the purpose of this thread. The fact that all of those issues with food production exists does nothing to diminish the argument that perhaps eating meat is wrong.

Absolutely. Which is why I think it's an interesting paradigm to consider and strengthens the comparison to other social issues. Isn't that a big reason why people refuse to challenge their own views on sexism, racism, etc.? Because it is convenient for them not to? I'm not trying to go for some grand statement here, I just think this is a really useful thing to reflect on when trying to navigate all of the other social issues we face.

I agree that that's pretty much the gist of it but are there not some parallels to other social issues that we face? I realize this isn't totally apt but I could see someone make a similar statement along the lines of "women aren't men" or something like that. If you really think about it, how much more acceptable is it for us to have that viewpoint about animals than it is for one segment of humans to have a similar viewpoint towards another segment of humans.

I think with the character scaling there shouldn't be much issue just running at T3/T4.

The rolling ball thing in the lava world was one of the most infuriating goddamn things I've ever experienced. Everything else about that game was pretty great but I would rather pass another kidney stone than do that again. That is of course a lie. Fuck kidney stones.

Yes, I'm pretty sure you can mix local and online. I think last time I played I was on Torment II difficulty so hopefully I'm somewhat on par with where you are at. I hope to catch you on and look forward to playing.

Not to brag or anything, but I had some pretty mad skills when it came to navigating around that underwater conveyor belt area.