Dana Beal

Irvin Dana Beal (born January 9, 1947, in Ravenna, Ohio) is an American social and political activist, best known for his efforts to legalize marijuana and to promote the benefits of Ibogaine as an addiction treatment.

Beal was born in Ravenna, Ohio, in 1947.

In August 1963, he hitch-hiked to Washington, D.C., to attend the March on Washington and heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

In October 1963, Beal organized a demonstration of 2000 people to protest the Ku Klux Klan's 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham.

It now takes place in hundreds of cities around the world in addition to New York City, which has had various marijuana rallies since 1967.

Beal has a long history of marijuana activism both inside and outside of New York City, and has often been called "The Lenin of the Marijuana Movement".

His friends and associates identified Beal, who does not use his first name, Irvin, as one of the first movement writers to argue for a merger of political radicalism and the psychedelic life style ... Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, Yippie leaders who garnered national attention during the 1968 Democratic convention demonstrations, agreed in separate telephone interviews that Beal was an important figure in the movement.

"He is a unique blend of a street person and a theoretician," said Mr. Hoffman.

"His writings are far more important and impressive than people like me and Jerry Rubin."

Mr. Rubin said Beal's writings "were a strong force in helping us understand who we are."

... Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Rubin said Beal's most important works were "Right on Culture Freaks" and "Weather Yippie," which were rèprinted in more than 100 underground newspapers in this country and abroad.

The articles called for more militancy on the part of young radicals but criticized what Beal saw as the élitism and lack of humanity in the more violent radical groups.

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

In 1971, The New York Times referred to Beal as a "major theoretician and behind‐the‐scenes leader of the underground youth movement.": Beal was described in interviews as a founder of several radical youth groups, including the Yippies, and as organizer of many "pro‐pot" demonstrations, such as the second annual smoke‐in and anti‐C.I.A. heroin march held in Washington July 4.

He is a founder and long-term activist in the Youth International Party (Yippies), and founded the Yipster Times newspaper in 1972.

In July 1972 in Miami Beach, Florida Beal was one of the organizers of a Zippie-led marijuana smoke-in outside the 1972 Democratic Convention.

Beal has promoted ibogaine as an addiction interrupter.

Beal asserts that addiction is a disease that can be treated with ibogaine.

The Yipster Times was renamed Overthrow in 1978, and ended publication in 1989.

The worldwide Global Million Marijuana March (GMM or MMM) event began in 1999 with Beal as the major organizer.

In 2004, the infamous Yippie "headquarters" at #9 Bleecker Street in New York City (also Beal's home for decades) officially became the Yippie Museum and Cafe and was legally chartered by the Board of Regents of New York State at their March 21, 2006, meeting.

Its stated purpose was to preserve the activities and artifacts of the Youth International Party.

Beal served on the museum/cafe's Board of Directors.

Beal was arrested June 3, 2008, in Mattoon, Illinois, about 170 miles south of Chicago on suspicion of money laundering.

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.

According to The New York Times, police responded to a report of two women arguing at a restaurant.

The 2 women were traveling with Beal and another man.

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.

Beal also participated in the Ibogaine Forum held at the University of Otago, New Zealand, on 5 and 6 September 2009, as well as a similar information-session in the Netherlands in 2017.

In January 2014, the 9 Bleecker Street building went into foreclosure.

The old Yippie building was cleaned out and is now a boxing club called "Overthrow".

Dana Beal was given an Honorary Board Seat on the 'New York State Committee To Legalize Marijuana' on 4/20/2015 by Dennis Levy, the HIV+ African American President.

In 2015, prompted by New York's Compassionate Care Act, Beal organized a patients' rights group, which drafted a bill requesting that NYC's City Council administer users' cooperatives for patients who need medical marijuana:

"'We're trying to set up a five-borough patients co-op for people with serious maladies, including ones that aren't on the state list,' says Dana Beal, a longtime cannabis activist and one of about ten contributors to the bill. 'The law and the regulations don't cover people who are [also] legitimate patients. We believe that under home rule, we can extend better availability and better prices to more people."

During the 2016 US presidential election-campaign, Beal organized a demonstration in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in which pro-cannabis activists carried a 51-foot, inflatable marijuana joint to a Hillary Clinton rally, while also passing around "an open letter to Hillary Clinton" asking her to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.

Beal also helped to organize the European Ibogaine Forum, September 2017 in Vienna.

Beal's "Cures Not Wars" site included information on the Global Marijuana March and the use of Ibogaine in addiction treatment.

He also works on behalf of people with AIDS and cancer who frequently require medical marijuana.