Dana Beal

In Spring 2021, Beal organized "Joints for Jabs NYC" in Union Square, encouraging vaccination against COVID-19:

In Spring 2018, Dana Beal supported New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, who spoke at the yearly New York City Cannabis parade in support of legalization.

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

High Times account of the arrest of cannabis activist Dana Beal in December, 2017:

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'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. 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:

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".

Beal turned himself in to the Wisconsin prison system on February 15, 2012 to begin serving his sentence. One week later he had another, minor, heart attack. The next day a stent was placed in a coronary artery.

On April 20, 2012 Beal was moved to the Saunders County jail in Wahoo, Nebraska, where he had a bench trial later that year, on August 27 related to the 2009 arrest. On December 10, 2012, Judge Mary Gilbride sentenced Beal to 4 to 6 years in prison in Nebraska. An appeal was filed. On 26 December 2012 Dana was moved from Nebraska back to Fox Lake Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.

Dana Beal was arrested on Jan. 6, 2011 with 186 pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop in Barneveld, Wisconsin. He and driver Lance Ramer of Omaha, Nebraska were held on $50,000 bond each in the Iowa County Jail in Dodgeville. Authorities won't release the police report because Federal officials say it might compromise a national drug investigation which runs "from California to New York, with multiple locations."

On September 20, 2011 Dana Beal was sentenced to .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}2+1⁄2 years in prison. He was credited with 267 days already served for the time he was in jail. He was also sentenced to 2+1⁄2 years parole after getting out of prison.

On September 27, 2011, the day he was to be transferred to a state prison in Wisconsin, Beal suffered a heart attack. He had a double bypass operation a week later. Due to the health issues and costs Beal was released on bail while in the hospital. He was re-sentenced on December 29. His prison sentence was reduced by six months.

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.

Dana Beal, Christopher Ryan, and James Statzer were arrested at 10:35 p.m. on September 30, 2009 in Ashland, Nebraska. Police claim that they were stopped because the conversion van they were in was driving erratically, and because the rear license plate was obstructed. Police allegedly found 150 pounds of marijuana in the van. All 3 face charges of possession with intent to deliver and having no drug tax stamp. Ryan and Statzer were held on $100,000 bond each. Beal was held on $500,000 bond. According to the Omaha World-Herald, Saunders County Attorney Scott Tingelhoff said that there was an effort on the web to raise Beal's bail. He had to raise 10 percent ($50,000) in order to be released.

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.

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. The outcome of the trial was that Beal pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession and was fined $1,300. Obstruction of justice charges were dismissed. Federal authorities are seeking forfeiture of the money involved.

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.

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, 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". 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.

In 1971, The New York Times referred to Beal as a "major theoretician and behind‐the‐scenes leader of the underground youth movement.":

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. He is a founder and long-term activist in the Youth International Party (Yippies), and founded the Yipster Times newspaper in 1972. The Yipster Times was renamed Overthrow in 1978, and ended publication in 1989.

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.