Polish Party Leader Threatens to Light Joint in Parliament

Janusz Palikot—the leader of a new party in Poland, "Palikot's Movement," which seeks to decriminalize "soft" drugs—publicly threatened to spark a joint in parliament, to protest opposition to his draft proposal for reform. “We’re trying to get into room 143 to burn some grass,” he told reporters. But at the last minute, heeding stern warnings from Parliamentary Speaker Ewa Kopacz, 47-year-old Palikot chickened out, and burned incense containing a tiny amount of marijuana instead. Palikot is a maverick businessman whose previous interests include a vodka company; his self-named party won 10% of the vote in Poland's October elections. Prosecutors have opened an investigation against him, seeking criminal charges for “promoting or advertising” drugs, with a possible one-year sentence.