Ingrid's "Where I live" post highlights some of the bizarre perceptions people have of Amsterdam and why a person might choose to live there. When I first came here, I was struck by the number of my countryfolk whose immediate thought was "you'll be stoned all the time then".

For sure, the regulations concerning cannabis are relatively liberal here. For me that mostly means that I know that there may possibly be some in the house, but I have no idea where it might be. Maybe it was the victim of a spring-cleaning frenzy. In less liberal regimes, you damn well know where your stash is at.