UCA
Underground Cannabis Archives
Dana Beal
Dana Beal is a lifelong American social and political activist best known for his efforts to legalize marijuana. Dana has also been one of the most prominent advocates for ibogaine as a treatment for opioid addiction and PTSD. He traveled to Ukraine and brought ibogaine to soldiers on the front lines. Dana is one of the founders of the Yippies. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, Yippie leaders both agree that Dana was an important figure in the movement. According to Tim Hughes, Dana was a great organizer and always had a positive attitude and was beloved by all the Yippies.
Dana founded Cures Not Wars, the New York city Marijuana march, the World Wide Million Marijuana march and countless smoke-ins as a form of protesting the illegalization of marijuana. Dana also founded Yipster Times in 1972. America's only national underground newspaper, it was renamed Overthrow in 1978 and the publication ended in 1989. Jerry Rubin feels some of Dana's most important works were "Right on Culture Freaks" and "Weather Yippie" which were reprinted in more than 100 underground newspapers.
Dana's activism has saved hundreds of people's lives with severe ailments to have access to holistic medicines that complement their other treatments. Dana has been arrested multiple times and has spent several years in prison for trafficking marijuana. On January 6, 2011 Dana was arrested in Wisconsin with 186 pounds of marijuana. He was sentenced to two and a half years. On September 27, 2011 the day he was to be transferred to Wisconsin state prison he suffered a heart attack and had to have a double by pass operation. After Dana returned from his trip to Ukraine he was arrested in Idaho in January 2024 for trafficking 58 pounds of raw marijuana along with psilocybin mushrooms and THC wax.
After serving two months he was released on $250,000 bail. An Idaho judge sentenced Dana to six months in prison plus nine and a half years of parole in New York city. He is currently serving time in a Idaho state correctional institution in Boise and is due to be released in December 2026. Dana Beal believed in the marijuana movement so strongly that he spent more than 50 years of his life living the way he felt it should be lived. He is a rebel in some states and a outlaw in others, never the less without people like Dana always pushing the envelope its hard to say what the marijuana laws would be like today. Yes we have come along way but unfortunately we still have along way to go.
Take care Dana Beal