Law Enforcement: Veteran Activist Dana Beal Busted for 150 Pounds of Pot in Nebraska
Long-time marijuana legalization activist Dana Beal was one of three men arrested October 1 in Ashland, Nebraska, after they were pulled over in a traffic stop and police seized 150 pounds of marijuana. He and the other two men, Christopher Ryan of Ohio and James Statzer of Michigan, are being held in the Saunders County Jail, with bail set at $500,000 for Beal and $100,000 for Ryan and Statzer.
Beal, an erstwhile Yippie activist from the 1970s and permanent fixture on the counterculture scene, heads the New York City-based organization Cures Not Wars, which advocates for the use of ibogaine as a treatment for drug dependence. But he is more widely known for acting as an information clearing house for the annual legalization rallies held each May in more than 200 cities around the planet known as the Global Marijuana March or Million Marijuana March.
The men were traveling from California, where they had attended the annual conference of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) the previous week. According to local media reports, police stopped the van in which they were riding for "driving erratically," and when the police officer approached the vehicle, he saw "several bags of marijuana in plain view." He then called for assistance, and police then found multiple duffel bags of marijuana, totaling 150 pounds, throughout the vehicle.
Last year, Beal was arrested in Illinois on money-laundering charges after police there seized $150,000 in cash and a small amount of marijuana from his vehicle. The money-laundering charges were later dropped, and Beal pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession. The state of Illinois kept the money.
Beal's supporters have begun a fund-raising drive to raise the $50,000 cash bail needed to free him and to pay his legal expenses. See the Free Dana Beal Facebook page, web page, or blog for information on how you can help.
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Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 10/07/2009 - 3:20pmI drove through Nebraska recently and was appalled at what has become of America. Between Omaha and Lincoln (about 50 miles) there was no less than 20 different cars pulled over with all the contents emptied on the side of the road. Worse yet, twice there were police vehicles dancing around mine, hitting their brakes in front of me, almost causing accidents in heavy traffic. They have gone beyond seeing an infraction and having their pretext to tear cars apart to actually trying to cause infraction so they can violate any notion of reasonableness as they do their fascist thing. Nebraska is a shameful example of what America has become. Everything they taught me in school about what made america great has been proven to be a lie . . . "safety check, your papers please, any terrorists in your trunk?". All we have to do is make something a crime and walla, do what ever we want! Tyranny is always done with the color of law. The first thing the tyrant does is roll out about of laws criminalizing consensual behavior. America is beyond hope . . .
Oct. 6, 2009 3:58pm CDT | from appalled1776
See the other DRCnet article too.
Comment posted by Account deleted at user request. on Sat, 10/10/2009 - 8:25amThere is additional info in the comments at the end of this article on the 2009 Dana Beal arrest:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/603/dana_beal_arrested_marijuana_neb...
It's a fact.
Comment posted by mike kinney on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 12:57pmActivist Dana Beal was busted around exit 420. I live in Nebraska and have worked in the Corrections Industry for 18 years. I have written a movie script about a medical marijaua patient who gets busted on I-80. He ends up getting his rental car torn apart on a bogus traffic stop and ends up in jail for trafficing. The title of the movie is "The Good Life" a pun on Welcome to Nebraska. If anyone is interested you can contact me at matt.kinney55@yahoo.com. 18 years of sad but true stories all combined to make one funny ass movie. Its right for the times.
More info and links
Comment posted by Account deleted at user request. on Wed, 10/07/2009 - 8:26amThere is another link for the Facebook group that pulls up the full version of the page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=143405647913
Article with TV news video concerning Dana Beal's arrest on Sept. 30, 2009:
http://www.ketv.com/news/21173912/detail.html
More on Dana Beal, his recent arrest, and his various causes over the years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Beal
Jail address, phone, defense/bail fund, etc:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=143405647913&topic=9846
Latest news: http://news.google.com/news/search?q=%22dana+beal%22
Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22dana%20beal%22
Images: http://images.google.com/images?q=%22dana+beal%22
Videos: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22dana+beal%22
Dana Beal is the founder of the Global Marijuana March:
http://www.google.com/#q=global+marijuana+march
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Marijuana_March
http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/Global_Marijuana_March
http://cures-not-wars.org
Search shortcut of the Google News archive that pulls up many media articles mentioning Dana Beal over many years:
http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22dana+beal%22+marijuana