Yair Lapid
Yair LapidFlash 90

Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid's stance on legalizing marijuana is malleable, he revealed Monday - dependent on how the legalization process works in other countries. 

Lapid has previously taken a tough stance against soft drugs, and was adamant against the process during the last campaign. 

However, when asked about the issue by an audience member during the Yesh Atid campaign rally at the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) house in Tel Aviv Monday night, Lapid - to the audience's surprise - said that he would consider reversing his stance, according to Walla! News

"I follow what is happening now in the United States, which is a huge experiment in legalization," Lapid said. "I am against it right now, because as long as it is illegal in Europe, drug traders will move from here to there. But let's see in a year." 

Lapid's comments caused surprise for many who followed him closely during the last elections and the 19th Knesset, especially after he vehemently denied taking drugs before. 

In September 2013, actor Tomer Sharon declared that he had taken drugs with the former Finance Minister when he was still a journalist, but Lapid raised eyebrows by denying allegations of past drug-use by those who say they smoked with him.

"In Israeli politics the accepted practice says you can't have any defects," he said at the time. "I'm a man full of defects. I don't claim not to have defects. I have a long list of sins, I drank and I flirted, until the woman married to me now appeared in my life, but I didn't smoke grass," stated Lapid.

Lapid further said "I'm at the stage where I'm sorry I didn't smoke, I could have come and said 'yes, I smoked, leave me alone.' Would it have damaged me? We're in 2014. Go to a Herzliya high school, do an investigation."

Currently, possession of marijuana is illegal in Israel and a very small scale of medicinal cannabis is legal. ​A proposal to legislate medical marijuana on the broad scale fell flat last year.