Fifteen Things You Might Not Know About Bill Levin

Bill Levin (Indianapolis Star Photo)

The Indianapolis Star has a big spread this weekend on Bill Levin, the Grand Poobah of the First Church of Cannabis. Because Gannett likes list, I'm providing a list of 15 take-aways from the lengthy story authored by Mark Alesia and Tim Evans. They didn't leave too many stones unturned. It's too bad these folks can't devote more time to doing investigating reporting on the rampant corruption in local government instead of promoting this clown and his faux church, but it's the Gannett way and it's not likely to change. The newspaper scarcely covers a mayoral candidate or other candidate for public office with this kind of in-depth coverage.

• He was born into an upper-middle class Jewish family in 1955 (age 59)
• His family owned a successful toy distribution business where he occasionally worked in his younger years.
• He smoked pot for the first time in his early teens after it was offered to him by an older guy. He was the kid in the neighborhood who turned the other kids onto pot. 
• He rebelled against his parent's country club lifestyle (they were members of Broadmoor Country Club), and they sent him away to boarding schools in Maine and Ohio.
• He's been an "inveterate huckster" most of his life: "I can look at something and have it marketed before the person finishes the first sentence."
• He spent most of his younger adult years working as a punk band promoter.
• He's had minor brushes with the law, including charges for public intoxication and growing marijuana.
• In the 1980s, he briefly made a living selling a high-caffeine soft drink, Jolt. 
• He ran a party bus in Broad Ripple for about 10 years.
• He started a group to legalize marijuana in the 1990s.
• He fled the country and lived in Thailand for several years because he said his life "was falling apart."
• He filed for bankruptcy in 2005, claiming he had no income in 2003 or 2004.
• He's been married a couple of times and has two grown daughters to his first wife, Julie Lahr, who sees his role as the Grand Poobah of the First Cannabis Church as just the latest of his exploits and attempts at reinventing himself.
• Levin has twice run for public office unsuccessfully as a Libertarian candidate for city-county council and state representative in 2011 and 2014, respectively.
• Levin says he's not in it for the money: "I want to see the church grow and expand," Levin said. "Again, I don't need s---. What the f--- do I need? I got a 36-year-old girlfriend. I'm 59 years old. I'm happier than f---. ... I see it as a huge growth of a loving religion. I'm not looking at it as a cash cow. I'm looking at it as helping others to develop freedom of religion."