Exactly, places like Amsterdam where you can buy both marijuana and shrooms legally are not destroyed pits of hell either.
In fact I enjoy Amsterdam a lot and it does many things much better than comparable cities in Germany. Especially catastrophically bad places like Berlin.
There are many cultural differences at play though. The only difference between Denver and Amsterdam is not height. The point I was trying to make in my post was there are many factors at play, but I believe gateway drug effect will be one of them.
In fact I enjoy Amsterdam a lot and it does many things much better than comparable cities in Germany. Especially catastrophically bad places like Berlin.