US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

Why is it that in Amsterdam you have coffee-shops where you can sit relax and smoke cannabis but nothing like that seems to exist in New York City? Or elsewhere in America, is there?

There are a couple of dispensaries with on site consumption lounges in San Francisco.

Honestly, it's probably mostly just a tourism thing at this point. Most of the Dutch people I know tend to not care about weed but they see coffee-shops as a thing for tourists or international students. If you're a regular user in NL, then you have a hookup or grow your own plants.

Also, anecdotally, I can smell a lot less weed in Amsterdam than when I've caught a wiff of it in the US. You have to be walking right by the shop before you smell it usually. I'm not sure if this is a local regulation or what, but I suspect the Dutch would be much less tolerant if their public spaces reeked 24/7 (but no worried about the dog poop on the sidewalk)!