Dana Beal

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Dana Beal (born January 9, 1947 in Ravenna, Ohio) is an American social and political activist, best known for his efforts to legalize marijuana. He is a long-term activist in the Youth International Party (Yippies) and founder of the Yipster Times.^[1][2][3]

Contents 1 History and activism 2 Global Marijuana March 3 Ibogaine 4 Social engagement 5 2008 arrest 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History and activism

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Chapter 4 of the 1997 book "The Ibogaine Story"^[4] is a biography of Dana Beal. It states:

Dana was born in the same hospital in Ravenna, Ohio, where the dying students were later taken from Kent State. He counts among his formative experiences shaking hands with Jack Kennedy when he campaigned in East Lansing in 1960, and hitch-hiking in August '63, at 16, to Washington, D.C., in order to be near the foot of the Lincoln Memorial for the "I have a dream" speech. Two months later he organized his first demonstration of 2,000 people, in Lansing, when the Klan blew up four little Black girls in a church on Birmingham Sunday. The next year he did a brief stint in a state mental hospital because of his mercurial temper. Because he told shrinks he thought he was destined for something important, they said he was crazy. But that kept him from being drafted in January '65, a month with the highest proportion of casualties in Viet Nam. He also became a lifelong critic of thorazine and prolyxin. He escaped, got a job in New York, saved his money, and legalized his status in late 1965.

Beal's father was an archivist for the State of Michigan and a veteran of World War II. His ancestors can be traced back to the Hessians and to a signer of the Declaration of Independence. As a high school student, Beal began to immerse himself in philosophy and mathematics. He associated with students from Michigan State University (Okemos was close to East Lansing and MSU).

One evening a niece of the actor Eli Wallach brought him to "The Smoke Shop" - an early commune run by A.J. Weberman. Weberman saw Beal with a copy of Bertrand Russell's Principia Mathematica under his arm, as Beal was wandering about looking at the girls. Weberman asked him if he wanted to smoke something that would give him real insight into "Uncle Bertie". (Weberman had reprinted Lord Russell's essay, "Why I Am Not A Christian," under his own name in the State News.) Weberman soon introduced Beal to marijuana.

Weberman was arrested for possession of marijuana in February 1964 and sent back home to Brooklyn. Beal eventually came to New York City where he got a job, enrolled at New York University, became an A student. He rented an apartment in the East Village. The only problem he had was having once gotten up at a 1963 political meeting to say that if a tyrant ever takes over the government of the United States he should be shot. Someone in the crowd reported him to the U.S. Secret Service and every time a President of the United States came to New York City for many years thereafter, the Service would interview Beal or check on his whereabouts.

Weberman turned Beal on to his first hit of LSD-25. On Christmas day in 1966 Beal tried LSD for the first time.^[4] Beal dropped out of college and formed the New York Provos. The Provos had been active in Amsterdam and had held the first smoke-in on the steps of the City Hall there. The underground newspaper, the East Village Other, gave the Provos its old office on Avenue A and Beal put a large sign in the window reading PSYCHEDELIC REVOLUTION. Beal started Street Sheet and organized marches through the East Village whenever there was a pot bust.

Beal co-authored a book, The Ibogaine Story, which reports the following:

Inspired by a VOICE article on the Dutch Provos, he started the New York Provos with two friends, and called a smoke-in for Tompkins Square Park. The smoke-ins got bigger and bigger, and after a judge ruled a roll-your-own cigarette seen from a distance wasn't grounds for arrest, the Feds moved in an informer who wheedled Dana's personal acid stash out of him. When he was busted in late August 1967, 3,000 people marched from a Fugs concert, across Fourteenth Street, to the federal holding pen on West Street. It was Dana's first fifteen minutes of fame. In October [1967] the Provos gave out four pounds of pot at the "Levitation of the Pentagon." Then in December, the Provo Free Store on First Street was raided, and Dana was charged with a pot sale he didn't do. Convinced he couldn't get fair treatment, he fled to Mexico, then Canada, where he had to watch Chicago '68 on television.^[4]

In the Summer of 1967 Beal allegedly sold LSD to an undercover police agent and was locked up. The Community Bail Fund got him out, and hundreds of hippies carried him from the jail at 100 Center Street back to the Provo office. In a few months Beal opened a Free Store on 2nd Street between Bowery and 2nd Avenue. By this time the police had decided to arrest him on another drug charge. When they came to arrest him Beal made a run for it. As a detective was in hot pursuit he slipped through a small hole in a hurricane fence. So Beal jumped bail in January 1968 and went underground - joining groups aligned with the Weather People. His associates at the time included Pat Small and Jerry Weatherman.

Beal moved to Canada. He came back to the USA in April 1969 to Milwaukee where he wrote "Right on, Culture Freaks", in which he stated that someday the Culture Wars would transcend politics in its importance to change. In September 1969 Dana traveled to Ann Arbor, where he became involved with the "White Panther Party." They merged with the Yippies in December 1969.

Beal helped organize the July 4th smoke-ins in 1970 and 1971 in Washington DC. For the 1971 one Beal and Tom Forcade added a march against CIA/Vietnam heroin. It got airplay on CBS Evening News.

He was apprehended 10 days later in Madison, Wisconsin. A smoke-in of 2000 people was held outside his jail. Beal served one year in prison. William Kunstler represented him in this matter.

Freed in the summer of 1972 Beal made his way to Miami where he helped Tom Forcade lead the protests against the Republican and Democratic Conventions with Wisconsin radical Pat Small and Aron Kay and others. Beal returned to New York and moved into a basement apartment on East 3rd Street, then to 9 Bleecker Street in 1973, which now houses the Yippie Museum.^[5] From Number Nine Beal organized demonstrations against the Unification Church, against Roy M. Cohn and John Mitchell and numerous anti-war rallies.

He made an enemy in Lyndon LaRouche, after leading a protest in front of the erstwhile Presidential candidate's office in midtown Manhattan. In 1981, LaRouche published a "Dope Dossier" on Beal in "Investigative Leads," the LaRouchian newsletter for law enforcement personnel, in an unsuccessful effort to trigger a police investigation.^{[citation needed]}

Dana Beal also helped organize some of the U.S. versions of the "Rock Against Racism" concerts.^[6]

[edit] Global Marijuana March

The worldwide Global Million Marijuana March (GMM or MMM) event began in 1999 with Beal as the major organizer. It occurs on the first Saturday of May every year, and now takes place in hundreds of cities around the world in addition to New York City (NYC). NYC has had various marijuana rallies since 1967.^{[7][8][9][10]}

[edit] Ibogaine

Beal has promoted ibogaine as an addiction interrupter. Beal asserts that addiction is a disease that can be treated with ibogaine. ^[4][6]

Beal helped to organize the Boston Ibogaine forum held in February 2009 at Northeastern University. During the forum, he gave a presentation on the chemistry and pharmacology of ibogaine.^[11]

[edit] Social engagement

Beal's "Cures Not Wars" site includes information on the Million Marijuana March and the use of Ibogaine in addiction treatment.^[12] He also works on behalf of people with AIDS. Paul DeRienzo was a close associate of Beal's, as was Thomas King Forcade, the founder of High Times magazine. The book Blacklisted News, is available from the Yippie Museum Press, 9 Bleecker St., NYC 10012, where Beal lives, and which also houses the Yippie Museum. The Yippie Museum Cafe and display area now occupies the first floor of Nine Bleecker Street, a landmark building designed by the partner of Frederick Law Olmsted, the man who designed Central Park.

Beal serves today on the board of the Yippie Museum.^[13] It is dedicated to preserving the activities and artifacts of the Youth International Party. The Yippie Museum was chartered by the Board of Regents of New York State at their March 21, 2006 meeting.^[14]

[edit] 2008 arrest

Beal was arrested June 3, 2008 in Mattoon, Illinois about 170 miles south of Chicago on suspicion of money laundering.^[15] The Associated Press reported that he appeared before a judge on June 12, and was charged with obstruction of justice. He was released on $7,500 bail.^[16]

According to The New York Times, police responded to a report of 2 women arguing at a restaurant. The 2 women were traveling with Beal and another man. Mick McAvoy is the first assistant state’s attorney for Coles County, Illinois. According to the Times, "Mr. McAvoy said witnesses told the police that Mr. Beal had placed bags beneath nearby vehicles. Mr. McAvoy said the police found two duffel bags containing more than $150,000 in cash. At that point, Mr. McAvoy said, a drug-sniffing dog was brought in to smell the bags." According to Beal's attorney, Ronald Tulin of Charleston, Illinois, the police said the money smelled of marijuana.^[17]

On August 6, 2008 Judge Richard Scott found probable cause for a jury trial for Irvin Dana Beal, 61, of New York City and Jesse Balcom, 31, of Silver Spring, Maryland. The trial began in November 2008 on obstruction of justice charges, because it was alleged that Beal and his associate were hiding the bags of money in expectation that the police might search their van.^[18] The outcome of the trial was that Beal pled guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession and was fined $1,300. Obstruction of justice charges were dismissed. ^[19]

[edit] References

1. ^ "F.Y.I.". By Daniel B. Schneider. May 21, 2000. New York Times.
2. ^ New York Daily Photo: Yippies. Yipster Times history.
3. ^ "Neighborhood Report: Greenwich Village; House of Yippies: Chicago Convention A Recurring Dream". By Michael Cooper. April 7, 1996. New York Times.
4. ^ ^{a b c d} The Ibogaine Story: Report on the Staten Island Project. [1] [2] 1997 book by Paul De Rienzo, Dana Beal, and Project Members. Publisher: Autonomedia. ISBN 9781570270291. The full text is online: [3]. The text can also be searched online here: [4]. Chapter 4 is titled "Dana Beal" and is a biography of him.
5. ^ "The Yippies Apply for a Piece of Establishment". By Deborah Kolben. March 16, 2006. The New York Sun.
6. ^ ^{a b} "Ibogaine: A Novel Anti-Addictive Compound. A Comprehensive Literature Review". by Jonathan Freedlander. Journal of Drug Education and Awareness, 2003; 1:79-98.
7. ^ "Yippie Central". By Colin Moynihan, New York Times. April 29, 2001. Article on Dana Beal.
8. ^ "Pot Smokers' March Is Out of the Park". By Mike Allen. May 3, 1998. New York Times.
9. ^ "Museum will have Abbie’s trash, Rubin’s road kill". By Lincoln Anderson. The Villager. Feb. 1-7, 2006. Article on Dana Beal.
10. ^ "Smoke and Jeers. Million Marijuana March Protests NYC's Record-High Pot Arrests". By Jennifer Gonnerman. Village Voice. May 5-11, 1999.
11. ^ Boston Ibogaine Forum. Feb. 14-16, 2009. Northeastern University Students for Sensible Drug Policy article.
12. ^ Cures Not Wars. Dana Beal website.
13. ^ YippieCafe.com - Yippie Cafe and Museum. Includes list of board members.
14. ^ YippieMuseum.org - The Yippie Museum Cafe. Events, schedule, images, history. A photo of the museum charter is shown too.
15. ^ "Illinois: Yippie Leader Faces Charges". By Colin Moynihan. June 10, 2008. New York Times.
16. ^ "New York medical pot advocate leaves Illinois jail on bail". By the Associated Press. June 12, 2008. Chicago Tribune.
17. ^ "A Yippie Veteran Is in Jail Far From the East Village". By Colin Moynihan. June 11, 2008. New York Times.
18. ^ "Trial for Beal in Nov. for alleged cash stashing". August 7, 2008. By Herb Meeker. Journal Gazette and Times-Courier (of Charleston, Illinois).
19. ^ [5]

[edit] External links

• CannabisNews.com archive of media articles mentioning Dana Beal.
• Ibogaine dossier web site.
• Dana Beal on Ibogaine Clinics, and his 2008 arrest