Burkhard Blienert from the SPD is the federal drug commissioner. He has never smoked weed – but he is the one who is now supposed to prepare the cannabis legalization. Is he the right person for this task?
Of
Marcel Laskus, Berlin
For a man who deals with the intoxication from morning to night, Burkhard Blienert has a very sober disposition. If you ask him what his favorite alcoholic drinks are, he says non-alcoholic wheat beer, because it’s not the alcohol that counts, but the taste. He hasn’t smoked cigarettes for a long time and has never smoked weed. And when he then also says that his greatest addiction is reading books, one no longer considers it completely impossible that one’s own life expectancy will increase simply because of the presence of Burkhard Blienert.