The police took the money and the product, and the club opened again the next day. He sold the Spanish businesses in 2022. Now he sues German customs instead.
The raids were scheduled, in the way weather is scheduled. Two or three times a year, in Barcelona and later in Ibiza, the police came into the cannabis clubs Stefan Röhrl ran.
"They took all your money. They took all your product."
He describes what happened next without any drama at all.
"Yeah, sure, you can open next day again, if you have product or the money again. But this is part of the deal."
Then the sentence that is the whole point of telling it.
"But if something is really legal, then this will not happen."
He is from Hamburg. He has been in the cannabis industry more than fifteen years, and it started in Spain, in the first wave of cannabis social clubs.
"We open up clubs in Barcelona, that for nine years. Then we had the opportunity to move to Ibiza."
Covid made Ibiza difficult. In 2022 he sold the Spanish club businesses and turned to Germany, where legalisation was coming.
What he had built in the meantime was legal from the start. A CBD and hemp company begun in 2018, now six retail stores and an e-commerce business. A seed company that reached more than seven thousand points of sale. When German legalisation arrived in April 2024 and seeds became sellable, the first month did most of a year's work.
"We nearly made 1 million euros in revenue with B2B seed sales."
Then a wholesaler and a telemedicine operation on the medical side.
He is exact about why any of it worked, and it is not about him.
"I'm blessed that I worked with a lot of good partners. In all my businesses, I have partners. For me it's always a key to have partners that you can trust, that you can rely on."
He names his division of labour without flattering himself.
"One of my biggest strength is this: I make something happen. I meet people, I network, I bring businesses up. And I have partners in my back who take care of all the details."
The thing that changed his risk appetite was not a law. It was a child.
"When you have a business mindset, you always try to make some money with it, even if it's not 100% legal or not legal at all at that time."
He became a father at twenty-two or twenty-three.
"And then your focus shifts more. What kind of risks do you want to take and what risks you don't want to take? And then I was always looking for some legal business opportunities when it comes to cannabis."
That is why Barcelona happened. It was not legal there either, and he knows it.
"Even the times in Spain and Barcelona was always working in the gray zone. It still is not legal in Spain. It's still a gray zone. It's getting a little bit more bright and not that dark gray anymore."
A friend gave him the formula he still uses.
"I like that we try to bend the rules, but not break the rules."
Germany does not make bending them simple. He runs through what CBD drops have legally been, in order.
"At the beginning, it was like a nutrition. Then this novel food stuff came up. Then we had it as a aroma product. Then they closed that. Now like the CBD drops are mouth cosmetic, and we have to write on every packaging that you have to spit it out after 60 seconds."
He does not pretend anyone believes it.
"Everybody knew that's not for that, you know. And everybody knew that it's helping the people."
So they went to court. They wanted smokable CBD flowers to carry a tobacco tax stamp, which would make selling them more clearly lawful. They pursued German customs to the highest court, and they won.
The credit goes elsewhere again, and this time it comes with an admission.
"That case took my partner Philip. He likes to go to court more than I. I don't like to go to court. I don't like to speak with the police, no matter what. My background is different. We don't speak with the police."
He leaves that where it lies. Philip, he says, is on the phone with their lawyer several times a week for hours.
"Quite a success to win the court case against German customs. I think German customs doesn't like us anymore."
The comparison he keeps returning to is a domestic one.
"I don't know why we need all this strict regulations on cannabis. Why I'm just allowed to have 50 grams of cannabis at home, but I can have, like, 1000 litres of vodka at my home. Nobody says nothing."
He does not think of other cannabis companies as the opposition.
"I always say I don't fight against my competitors. In the end, we are in the same boat. We are fighting against this ridiculous law."
And he does not think the work is finished.
"Cannabis is still not legal even in Germany. And when I look in Europe, it's still not legal."
He names one consequence of the half-measure that he considers urgent, and it is not about his own business.
"We have all the problems with this synthetic cannabinoid products. And this is real, real big problems, because that's an uncontrolled substance. And young kids take it. And because nobody knows exactly what it is, it gets sold legally."
He does not stop at cannabis, and he does not lower his voice when he goes further.
"Cannabis is not that bad for your body, for your health. Cannabis is so nice. It brings that much benefits for everybody. Not just for the real health patients. I think everybody should consume cannabis in anyways."
Then, unprompted, past the plant entirely.
"There are some benefits if you use it right. I'm a huge supporter and fan of microdosing. And microdosing is so good. It gives you so much benefits. It gives you so much clearance. And we have to make all that more normal."
He states the conclusion as if it were a schedule.
"I would say everybody should use magic mushrooms or LSD at least once a year. And then I think we will have less problems. I'm sure we will have less wars and all that, you know."
Asked where any of that would start, he does not say policy.
"I would say it starts with the education. You have to educate yourself."
These are his views, stated on camera. Cannabis Portrait neither endorses nor contests them. Psilocybin and LSD are controlled substances in Germany and in most places this will be read. Nothing here is medical advice.
At home he took the opposite approach to the one he grew up with.
"We were always super open to that. We never make it that it's a forbidden secret. Also, the forbidden fruits are always the most nicest fruits that you want to get as kids. And cannabis was never forbidden. We were always spoken openly with my kids about that."
He says the real work does not happen where people think it does.
"The real business will not be done in the offices or at the shows. The real business will be done in places like this, after the shows, when everybody start to feel comfortable and get more loose. Then you build relationships."
Asked what he would tell someone entering the industry, he does not talk about capital or licences.
"It has to be your passion. If it's not your passion, better search for something else. Don't go after what brings you the most money. Do what you love. Because you have to do your job, like, for the rest of your life."
His plan for afterwards is already written, and it does not involve cannabis.
"When my kids are moved out, I think the plan for me and my wife is to travel around the world and stay for 3 or 4 months at one place. To be more than just a tourist. To really see how life is at that place in the world."
Three or four places, for five years or so. Then, he thinks, you have seen a lot of the world.
"I'm happy now. It's kind of living the dream I had. I have the freedom to do what I want to do. I have nobody behind me who's pushing me. I push myself."
Disclosure: this interview was recorded at Tribe Lounge in Berlin, which is co-owned by Atiyyah Ferouz, also a Cannabis Portrait subject.
Video portrait coming soon / EN edition