This is a very small diary.
I recommend watching the 2min. BBC video Joints 'must be tobacco free' on the fact that smoking cigarettes and tabacco will soon be illegal in all stores and restaurants in Amsterdam... even in the coffee-shops. Yes, people there will be allowed (the legal term for this is not "allowed", but "tolerated") to smoke a joint, but not if it has tobacco in it! Why? Because everyone knows tobacco is bad for your health.
When my brother went to Amsterdam, he came back saying "Man, they are so liberal over there in Europe. People have so many more freedoms than we do in the US". Of course, if someone's only concept of freedom is the ability to easily acquire assault rifles and machine guns, then Europe may not be the place for that person.
My question is: why are we still locking people up for smoking marijuana? Just imagine if a collegue (Germany's Joschka Fischer from the Green Party?) at the United Nations had handed Colin Powell a joint and invited him, ever so politely, to take a break from his slides and chill? We might have actually averted a war.