Jewish Home MK Yinon Magal says he smoked weed, including during his tenure as a lawmaker.
Magal was interviewed by Channel 2 for a program that will air this evening.
“I did already smoke up as an MK, but I never made speeches or took decisions under the influence [of cannabis],” Magal says.
“I didn’t say I will no longer consume drugs, as an MK I declared that I stopped smoking,” Magal says, as the Channel 2 interviewer confronts him with a photo published on Facebook which shows him sitting in a friend’s home with what looks like a bag of weed on the coffee table in front of him.
“I cannot say I didn’t smoke,” he says.
Magal is trying to promote legislation that would decriminalize cannabis use. “There is no reason to open criminal files against young people who only smoke light drugs,” he says. He found an ally in this campaign in Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg, from the other end of the political spectrum. Zandberg is also working to decriminalize weed.
MK Yinon Magal leaves a press conference after a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on March 22, 2015 (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)
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