Whenever I promise to stop being so judgmental, I immediately see a pregnant chick smoking a cigarette?

I agree with you that the most pot-smokers are not a problem. I think the majority of Dutch people does not care about them. And many welcome them.

But there are discussions in The Netherlands about stopping the policy of tolerated soft-drugs use. The discussion focuses on the worst experiences. The people who are against the tolerated drugs use bring them into the media, because they need those messages to convince people.

Science and rational thinking would bring a different discussion. The Global Commission on Drugs Policy writes: The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Their advice: "Drug policies must be based on solid empirical and scientific evidence.

The primary measure of success should be the reduction of harm to the health, security and welfare of individuals and society". This is a media-action to criminalize users of soft drugs. So there is no reason to be hateful.

However: there are stories of tourists and dealers causing nuisance. In these days when their behaviour is carefully watched that is not in the advantage of the majority who are ordinary and good folks.

When I was there, I thought they were pretty friendly. I don't smoke, but I did go in a cafe to check it out and did talk to some locals there in the cafe regarding the subject because I find it interesting. I thought they were quite open with me.

However, I can see how obnoxious tourists would get after a while, especially those that just go to smoke pot and browse the red light district. It would give your home place a bad reputation, and there's so much more to the Netherlands and its people than that stuff. I don't much care for people stereotyping where I'm from, so it goes both ways.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.