- Michael Hartmann admitted using crystal meth for around a month in 2013
- His lawyer said he was not addicted to it and used it to sharpen up at work
- Police searched his Berlin apartment after seeing him buy the drug
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Admission: German MP Michael Hartmann said that he used crystal meth for around a month in 2013
German MP Michael Hartmann has revealed that he took crystal meth in a bid to sharpen up at work.
Hartmann, the interior policy expert for the Social Democrats, had his Berlin apartment searched for drugs by police on Wednesday and his lawyer later admitted that he once bought and consumed crystal meth in 2013.
His lawyer stressed that Hartmann, who has been a vocal anti-cannabis campaigner, was not addicted to crystal meth and only took it for around a month to ‘improve performance’ at work , according to The Local.
His lawyer said: ‘Without wishing to excuse his misconduct, he explains it by saying that he hoped at that time to be more efficient through drug use.’
Police searched the 51-year-old’s home after a surveillance team saw him buying the drug.
Drug information website Frank describes crystal meth as a drug in the amphetamine family that makes users ‘exhilarated, alert and awake’, with long-term use sometimes leading to brain damage.
Hartmann is by no means the first politician to be embroiled in a drugs scandal.
Toronto mayor Rob Ford caused a media storm after admitting that he’d taken drugs.
Last Friday he said he won’t guarantee he will stay sober if he’s re-elected, telling a radio show that people will just have to trust him.
Ford, who returned this week to City Council from two months in rehab, said in an interview on Newstalk 1010 that he can’t make promises about something over which he has ‘no control.’
Radio host Jerry Agar said that as someone who has supported Ford in the past, the lack of guarantees that he won’t drink again if re-elected makes it tough to ‘take another four-year shot on Rob Ford.’
‘That’s up to you,’ Ford replied. ‘You’re going to have to look at my record and compare it to the people I’m running (against) and you’re basically going to have to trust me.’
Ford insisted that returning to lead Canada’s largest city and run for re-election October 27 won’t compromise his recovery.
Ford said last week that he’s used ‘every drug you can probably think of,’ and blamed substance abuse for the racist and homophobic language he’s used.
He said he’s used cocaine, marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms, but not heroin. He acknowledged he smoked crack but denied he was a crack addict. He said he drank at City Hall, but never did drugs at work.
Controversial: Toronto mayor Rob Ford caused a media storm after admitting that he’d taken drugs and recently said that he couldn’t guarantee staying sober if he was re-elected
The mayor announced in late April that he would seek help for alcohol addiction after a video surfaced that apparently showed him smoking crack cocaine. Reports last year of a similar video led to months of denials before Ford made his statement about smoking crack in a ‘drunken stupor.’
A small group of protesters, inspired by Joe Killoran, a shirtless jogger whose rant at Ford during a Canada Day event on July 1 touched off a social media frenzy, gathered outside the radio studios.
‘We have no shirts, you have no ethics,’ read one sign carried by the protesters, many of whom were bare chested.
Since his return Ford has given a handful of interviews, but has refused to take questions from city hall journalists at large about the circumstances surrounding his alcohol and drug use, the company he kept and offensive remarks he has made.
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German MP who spoke out against cannabis use admits taking crystal meth to 'improve my ...
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