The Mobile Coffeeshop

Oliver Becker was this cannabis activist who thought the best way to promote his legalization book was to load a camper van with Moroccan hash and just park it in Görlitzer Park on June 21st. Not grass—only hash. He’d worked it out so he wouldn’t interfere with the West African dealers already working the park. Different products, no conflict.

He called it his mobile coffeeshop, which I guess is one way to rebrand street dealing. The police obviously knew what was up and said they’d stop it. Becker’s move: if they arrested him, he’d hunger strike Gandhi-style. Fifty days, calculated to end right at the Hanf Parade on August 9th. He’d really thought through the logistics of his own arrest.

That’s very Berlin. The absolute confidence that you can announce an illegal scheme beforehand, with cops basically saying yeah, we know, and it still somehow feels like a political statement rather than just stupid. I never found out if he actually went through with it. Maybe he did and got busted. Maybe he lost his nerve. Either way, the audacity of thinking it through that carefully—that sticks with me.