A masked man walks into a bar and starts throwing cannabis joints at the customers before fleeing in getaway car

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It’s not quite clear what a masked man was trying to prove, promote or protest when he entered a bar in the southern Israel city of Be’er Sheva and began throwing cannabis joints at customers there before making good his escape.

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The bit of theatre likely made for great dinner conversation among customers of Bar Ilan shortly before midnight recently. Initially, though, it elicited considerable concern about a potential terrorist incident, suggested business owner Illan Zagdon, per YNetNews.

Indeed, the two-minute display left Zagdon stumped.

He reported the stunt kicked off when a man barged into the pub, retrieved a handful of cannabis products from a white bag, threw joints at customers and then yelled, “I’ll be back,” as he exited and fled to a waiting getaway car.

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Zagdon’s theory is that the man is a drug dealer and the unorthodox dispersal was a marketing stunt for students of the nearby university, many of whom are customers at the pub. Since law enforcement began cracking down on dealers using Telegram to make drug sales, it may be that pushers thought it was worth physically coming to locations frequented by potential customers.

No green light yet for recreational cannabis

Medicinal cannabis is legal in Israel with a permit, notes information from the government. Applications for a Medical Cannabis Permit or changes to said permit must be submitted by a specialist physician with expertise in the condition being treated and then okayed by the health ministry.

Although there have been attempts to green light adult-use cannabis, recreational cannabis remains illegal in the country.

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That said, many people expect legalization to eventually unfold.

Draft regulations earlier this year noted cannabis use would be punishable by a fine as opposed to potentially being treated via criminal prosecution, Haaretz reported in February. The country already decriminalized adult use of small amounts of the plant in private more than three years ago.

Perhaps that was cause enough for the masked man to recently celebrate by distributing cannabis products at the pub.

Whatever the case, Zagdon informed police about the incident and an investigation has reportedly been launched.

Tossing weed in front of authorities is nothing new

It’s certainly not the first time that weed has been distributed, but mostly the motivation for these incidents are, by turns, high-minded or low-minded.

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The former was definitely the case when free medicinal marijuana handed out in Halifax in late 2020 in a bid to help reduce opioid use.

An argument could also be made for the former with regards to an activist group that used a drone to drop packets of suspected cannabis over a main square in Tel Aviv two years ago as a show of support for legalizing adult-use cannabis.

That said, there are plenty of examples of pot being tossed not for altruism or protest, but as the quickest means of avoiding prosecution.

Countless failed bids to avoid the long arm of the law have included the U.K. man who tossed five dozen marijuana plants off his balcony that were subsequently found by police, the Australian man implicated in hurling cannabis plants at mounted police during an unauthorized protest and even the woman who reportedly had her children toss out cannabis as she led police on a high-speed chase.

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