>As a Dutch resident, I have never understood why so many (mostly American) tourists visit The Netherlands just to use drugs in Amsterdam. I think back to inte

>As a Dutch resident, I have never understood why so many (mostly American) tourists visit The Netherlands just to use drugs in Amsterdam. I think back to interviews Frank Zappa gave in the 1980s where he talked about how the "sexualization" happening in American music, movies, etc was really titillation, IE: in a sense, Americans were so repressed and so juvenile that anything resembling sex, drugs, and rock and roll were too much to handle. Where I live in WA, marijuana has been legal for a number of years now to the point that it's passé. But, if you are a young college student from one of the more repressed states and you go on your study abroad where marijuana is legal and there are barely clothed women in the red windows, it's pretty big stuff. When we took the kids to Amsterdam a few years ago, we walked through the red light district on a late afternoon. Was tamer than I recalled from 25 years ago when I was a college student - I can see where it's more of a burden to Amsterdam than a bonus, but I guess it lures in a few more tourist dollars.