Perusing the pages of the early years of the St. Louis Jewish Light, we came across an interesting time capsule of an editorial, with a great headline: “Leery of Leary.” So readers may see what was on the mind of the paper’s editor and editorial committee, here’s an excerpt of the editorial, from the Nov. 4, 1970 edition. 

“It is difficult not to be amused at the reception which the “revolutionary” Arab states have extended to Dr. Timothy Leary, father of the LSD contagion and one of the arch-fools of all time.

“After escaping from a California prison, the hallucinogenic Leary turned up in Algeria, which has become a haven for Panthers, Weathermen and other self-exiled American radicals. He soon found himself on the worst “bad trip” of his inglorious career, when the “revolutionary” government of Algeria cancelled his news conference and ordered him to leave.

“Like a pathetic ping pong ball he was bounced from Beirut, Lebanon, to Cairo, Egypt, and back to Algiers where he finally was allowed to stay as a “revolutionary Muslim.” The Bleary-eyed Leary had failed to consider the fact that the Middle Eastern states take a much harsher attitude toward drug abuse than the United States, and want no part of his destructive philosophy…”