German MP sparks debate after apparently smoking marijuana on TV

German politician, Martin Lindner,  deputy head of the pro-business Free Democrats in parliament, has prompted a debate among his colleagues about the legality of soft drugs after appearing to have taken a drag from a joint on live television. On Thursday evening, Lindner was a guest on Benjamin von Stuckrad Barre's talk show, "Stuckrad Late Night," when the host produced what he said was a joint.



Lindner grabbed it to have a sniff and suggested that it wasn't real. Barre urged him to test it - which he then did on a balcony outside the studio, on camera. "I took a drag to refute the host's claim that it was a real joint," Lindner said. "I don't know what it really was, but I didn't feel any intoxicating effect." Both the show's production company and Stuckrad-Barre himself have confirmed that it was indeed a real joint. "Mr. Lindner showed himself to be the ideal talk show guest," the host said.

Lindner's party is the junior coalition partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right government. Still, it is unclear whether there will be any political repercussions. While the possession of small amounts of the drug has been decriminalized in some parts of Germany, including Berlin, outright legalization remains controversial. Indeed, both the FDP and Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats came out strongly in January against a Left Party proposal to allow the establishment of marijuana cafes.


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Some elements within the FDP, however, would like to see marijuana made legal. The party's youth wing distributed a statement on Friday calling for the drug to be placed on the same level as other "soft" drugs such as alcohol and nicotine. Germany's drug commissioner Mechthild Dyckmans, likewise a member of the FDP, was not impressed however. Lindner's televised caper, she said, "sends the wrong signal."