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]
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[edit] Activism
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 and LSD.
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.
In 1967 Weberman turned Beal on to his first hit of LSD-25. 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.
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 and 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. Apprehended in Madison, Wisconsin, 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.[4] 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. Beal has been organizing for the legalization of marijuana since the mid 1960s.
Dana Beal also helped organize some of the U.S. versions of the "Rock Against Racism" concerts.[5]
[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.[6][7][8][9]
[edit] Ibogaine
Beal has been instrumental in promoting ibogaine as an addiction interrupter. Beal feels addiction is a disease and is determined to ameliorate its effects. Numerous scientific papers have been published attesting to ibogaine's addiction interrupting properties in human and test animals.[10][5]
[edit] Social engagement
Beal's "Cures Not Wars" site includes information on the Million Marijuana March and the use of Ibogaine in addiction treatment.[11] 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 Olmstead, the man who designed Central Park.
Beal serves today on the board of the Yippie Museum.[12] 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.[13]
[edit] Criminal charges
Beal is currently incarcerated in Illinois pending possible charges of money laundering. [2] The New York Times reported on June 10, 2008:
Dana Beal, a longtime Yippie leader, is facing money laundering charges and is being held in the Coles County Jail on bail of $250,000, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman said. Further information about the charges was not yet public. Mr. Beal became a member of the Youth International Party, known as the Yippies, shortly after the group was founded in the 1960’s by Abbie Hoffman and others. Since 1973 Mr. Beal and other Yippies have lived in a building on Bleecker Street in New York City that the group used as a headquarters.[14]
[edit] References
- ^ "F.Y.I.". By Daniel B. Schneider. May 21, 2000. New York Times.
- ^ New York Daily Photo: Yippies. Yipster Times history.
- ^ "Neighborhood Report: Greenwich Village; House of Yippies: Chicago Convention A Recurring Dream". By Michael Cooper. April 7, 1996. New York Times.
- ^ "The Yippies Apply for a Piece of Establishment". By Deborah Kolben. March 16, 2006. The New York Sun.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Yippie Central". By Colin Moynihan, New York Times. April 29, 2001. Article on Dana Beal.
- ^ May 2nd 1998 New York City marijuana rally.
- ^ "Museum will have Abbie’s trash, Rubin’s road kill". By Lincoln Anderson. The Villager. Feb. 1-7, 2006. Article on Dana Beal.
- ^ "Smoke and Jeers. Million Marijuana March Protests NYC's Record-High Pot Arrests". By Jennifer Gonnerman. Village Voice. May 5-11, 1999.
- ^ The Ibogaine Story: Report on the Staten Island Project. 1997 book by Paul De Rienzo, Dana Beal, and Project Members. Publisher: Autonomedia. ISBN 9781570270291. The full text is online: [1]
- ^ Cures Not Wars. Dana Beal website.
- ^ YippieCafe.com - Yippie Cafe and Museum. Includes list of board members.
- ^ YippieMuseum.org - The Yippie Museum Cafe. Events, schedule, images, history. A photo of the museum charter is shown too.
- ^ "Illinois: Yippie Leader Faces Charges". By Colin Moynihan. June 10, 2008. New York Times.
