January 19 , 1966, Cleveland Plain Dealer

-- by Gene I. Maeroff

….sentences ranging u-p to 40 years for sale of marijuana. Possession of marijuana on a first offense can mean 2 to 10 years and 5 – 20 years for a second offense.

As the interview progressed, Levy took off his sweatshirt. He was wearing underneath a green corduroy sports shirt. We were sipping coffee in one of those greasy spoon restaurants on Euclid Avenue, east of Mayfield Road S. E.

"I MEAN IT," Levy continued. "It would kill off a myth. Everyone thinks marijuana is so dangerous. Well it isn’t. It’s far less dangerous than alcohol."

Levy was bitter. He scorned the society that has legalized alcohol and made marijuana verboten. He thinks it is hypocritical.

"If smoking marijuana is so bad," he asked, "then what about drinking alcohol? The physiological damage from marijuana is less than from alcohol."

SOMETHING LEVY failed to point out is hat marijuana is classified as a narcotic by law enforcement officials.

Levy is not alone in some of his opinions.

While they do not necessarily want marijuana legalized there are some authorities who want people to pay more attention to the ravages of alcoholism

SAID A CHEMIST who is regarded as one of Cleveland’s most knowledgeable persons on this subject.

"We have come to look on alcohol as a way of life. It is, in fact, a way of death."

"We recoil in horror and chastise to those who smoke marijuana, but turn our heads when it comes to alcohol – in what it does to a user and the grief it causes others – is a greater problem to our society than marijuana will ever be."

CONCLUDED another authority:

"The answer is not to make two wrongs by legalizing marijuana but to begin attacking alcohol with the vigor we exhibited in dealing with marijuana."