Freedom runs through Irvin Dana Beal’s blood, the freedom that is being lost in America. Beal was originally from Ravena, Ohio. In fact when he was three his mama Marjorie tried to throw him in a ravina. 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 Dana with a copy of Bertrand Russell's ''Principia Mathematica'' under his arm wandering about looking at the girls. AJ 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 with a really hot Puerto Rican girlfriend and amassed a collection of science fiction books in a floor to ceiling bookcase he constructed. 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.

Dana was living the American dream until 1967 when Weberman turned Dana 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 Dana put a large sign in the window reading PSYCHEDELIC REVOLUTION. Every undercover cop in the 9th Precinct stopped by to inquire what differentiated psychedelic revolution from normal run of the mill revolution? Dana started ''Street Sheet'' and organized marches through the East Village whenever there was a pot bust. The residents of the East Village showed their support by throwing flowers from their windows - unfortunately they also threw the flower pots.

In the Summer of 1967 Dana allegedly sold acid to a snitch named John Henry 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 Dana opened a Free Store on 2nd Street between Bowery and 2nd Avenue. By this time the police had decided that Dana posed a threat of leading the hippies into violent acts against the American policy in Vietnam and targeted him for arrest on another drug charge. When they came to arrest him Dana made a run for it. As a detective was in hot pursuit he slipped through a small hole in a hurricane fence. When the fat beer-bellied detective tried to follow him he got wedged in the fence. So Dana 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. Whenever Jerry Weatherman returned to his home in small town Wisconsin a bunch of townies would attempt to attack him as they believed he had burned down the local draft board. Luckily Jerry was a Golden Gloves champion and the fools came out the worst for it. Dana moved to Canada and Milwaukee where he wrote perhaps his most prophetic piece, 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, after a child-molester disguised as a Reverend turned him in, Dana did a

year in clinck in Madison, where he was allowed to have his own typewriter. 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 his trusty crew that included 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, which now houses the Yippie Museum. From Number Nine Dana organized demonstrations against the Unification Church, against Roy M. Cohn and John Mitchell and numerous anti-war rallies and RIOTS!! He organized affinity groups to TRASH D.C.. He proved himself to be a genuine American dissident and revolutionary.At about this time, Beal helped with the "Rock Against Racism" concerts and has continued over the years to organize the Million Marijuana March (MMM) on the first Saturday of May every year in New York City.[1][2] The worldwide MMM event began in 1999 with Beal as the major organizer, and now takes place in hundreds of cities around the world in addition to NYC. His friend Weberman has stated on numerous occasions, "With that one joint I gave Dana I created a monster." NYC has had marijuana rallies since 1967. Despite a problem with over-consumption of alcohol Dana was able to organize a World Wide Marijuana March with pro-pot demonstrations in countries too numerous to mention. The worst repression of these freedom marches took place in the former Soviet Union. In Hungary Nazi scum tried to break up marches in small towns but not Budapest. In Kiev the police protected the marchers from the counter demonstrators. There was minor repression in Bulgaria but things went smoothly in the Czech Republic. The action in Toronto drew at least 20,000 people and was led by Mark Emory. AJ Weberman formulated the idea of National Marijana Day but Beal took it to new heights with International Marijuana Day. [3][4]

Dana has been working for the legalization of marijuana and other issues since at least the mid 1960s, and is particularly known for his association with the Yippies. He soon 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.