GERMAN GREEN LEADERS URGED TO SMOKE UP AND RELAX

ROSTOCK, Germany, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The youth wing of the German
Greens gave party leaders a bundle of marijuana cigarettes on Sunday
and told them to relax.

The leaders were handed the hashish (marijuana resin) "joints" after a
fractious congress, which ended after the pacifist party voted to back
the Afghan deployment of German troops.

The junior members of Germany's ruling coalition have spent the last
two weeks trying to avoid a party split over the deployment issue from
bringing about a government collapse.

Instead of presenting the customary bouquet of flowers to leaders for
a successful meeting, the youth wing handed over a bundle of drugs
tied up with a red bow.

"I'm not a smoker, but one can always use this for baked goods," said
Claudia Roth, co-leader of the Greens as she accepted the gift.

Although campaign manager Reinhard Buetikofer insisted the cigarettes were
fake, a member of the Greens youth wing told Reuters: "They were real
joints."

The traffic and possession of marijuana is illegal in Germany. But
offenders caught with small amounts of the drug are not usually prosecuted.

Police in Rostock said they were investigating whether the dope was
real.