Dana Beal, in Idaho jailhouse interview, shares key to Ukrainian and Biden victories: Ibogaine

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Dana Beal’s face — bushy, white walrus mustache…oversized, dark-framed eyeglasses — loomed into view as the video call finally, after a few failed tries, connected with his Tellmate “secure, inmate wireless tablet.”

He was speaking from jail in Gooding County, Idaho, where he’s being held — once again — on pot-trafficking charges. But rather than complain about the lousy prison food, crumby cell conditions or how he was framed, dammit, Beal promptly launched into a diatribe about his personal raison d’être — ibogaine.

It’s not just the issue that’s closest to his heart, but, as Beal tells it, could even help both Ukraine win its war against Russia and Joe Biden win reelection against Donald Trump.

Beal, 77, has been in lockup for six weeks now after being arrested on Jan. 15. As for why he was in a van, allegedly with a large quantity of cannabis, when the vehicle conked out in Idaho and he was busted, he isn’t saying much. The Tellmate call was subject to monitoring, an audio warning noted at the start.

“My objective was to raise money for equipment — equipment that we need for the facility…in Ghana,” Beal shared.

The facility was for making pills of ibogaine, a drug derived from an African root that can allegedly cure myriad addictions, from heroin to nicotine. It even helped the first son kick cocaine, he noted.

“Hunter Biden took ibogaine twice. It’s in his autobiography,” Beal said, citing the exact page number from memory. “He said it’s moderately effective — and nothing’s effective for cocaine.”

Asked about the coke that was found in the White House last summer, Beal shrugged, “Planted by some Trump guy.”

Unfortunately, though, after word got out that Beal was being held behind bars, the African factory was quickly “stolen” from him, he said.

Beal’s ultimate plan, as he tells it, was to return to Ukraine, where just a few months ago he was working with a military psychologist to explore using ibogaine to treat soldiers’ traumatic brain injury and battlefield burnout.

“What was I doing? I was on my way to bring ibogaine to Ukraine,” he stated. “The pot was incidental.”

Beal, a leader of the second-wave Yippies (Youth International Party), quipped that he’s been putting the “international” into Yippie through his globetrotting work trying to get his ibogaine production up and running; before going to Ukraine, he was in Africa buying the psychoactive root.

Meanwhile, as for his current situation, according to Beal, the prosecution claims he was trying to truck weed to “cartels” in Idaho.

“That’s what they’re saying in court,” he said.

In the past, his pattern was to buy reefer in Northern California, then bring it back to New York City. Much of it was for medical marijuana use, he would argue when arrested.

“Dana’s been doing this for years,” said John Penley, a longtime friend and fellow legalization advocate. “He’ll go somewhere where he can buy cheap pot. It’s generally not too good pot, but people buy it because it’s cheap. He’s been busted for it five or six times.”

Beal has been offered one year in jail, if he pleads guilty, down from the initial five years.

Congressional Republicans are stonewalling on giving further military funding to Ukraine, forcing the besieged country to go into defensive posture against a vastly larger invading Russian force.

“Mike Johnson is withdrawing the funds,” Beal noted of the House speaker.

At the same time, Beal is calling on President Biden to “deschedule” ibogaine, which is currently a Schedule 1 drug, meaning the U.S. feels it has “no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

“It has zero abuse potential,” the legalization activist argued. “It can’t be a Schedule 1 drug.”

Furthermore, he noted, ibogaine could be a major tool in fighting the nation’s fentanyl crisis.

In a twofer, he said, if he could just get ibogaine to Ukraine, it could help turn the war’s tide — while the American Ukrainian community could help push for the drug’s legalization here.

“We have a chance to reach out to the Ukrainian community,” he said, “and convince them that, even without the $60 billion and ammunition, they could get Biden to order ibogaine to be descheduled.

“For $20,000, we can make a million chocolate bars to go to the front lines. We have to get these microdoses to the Ukrainian army — and they’ll win the war. … We can sell chocolate bars for 4 Euros. Right now, they’re buying Adderall, which is bad for you.”

In addition to helping with traumatic brain injury and battlefield burnout, according to Beal, ibogaine also makes the brain one-and-half years younger, helps with nighttime fighting — and, most incredibly, even gives psychic powers.

“Soldiers will jump away from where bombs will drop,” he claimed. “And it also helps to figure out where the Russians are. It makes you mildly psychic.”

As if imbuing people with lifesaving ESP wasn’t enough, research has also shown that ibogaine cures Parkinson’s disease, Beal said, adding that issue alone could help Biden fend off Trump.

“We have the cure for Parkinson’s disease for the American people,” he said. “All we have to do is sign the f—ing order [to deschedule ibogaine]. He can run on that. … If Biden makes a cure for meth and Parkinson’s, he’ll win.”

Also, if Biden himself took ibogaine, it would help his mental acuity, questions about which are dogging him in the polls, Beal suggested.

“Yeah, definitely,” he urged, “he’s gotta take that microdose.”

Equaled only by his passion for ibogaine, Beal hates Trump with a vengeance.

“It was no January 6 Capitol Riot,” he fumed. “It was the January 6 Putsch — and it came unglued, just like the Beer Hall Putsch,” he said, referring to Hitler’s failed 1923 coup.

Other Washington politicians also could benefit from dosing with ibogaine, he noted, like Senator John Fetterman. The treatment would be given in Mexican clinics.

“We’re prepared to fly Fetterman down to Colima to repair his stroke damage,” Beal declared. “You fly into Tulum.”

Beal’s daughter, Aivia Monitto, has organized a GoFundMe to get him out of jail, with a goal of raising $75,000. She said they are “hoping to get a bail reduction” from $250,000.

“Once again, he finds himself a prisoner of the drug war,” his daughter said. “I would like to see Dana’s case dismissed on the grounds of his advanced age, ill health and the fact that this is not illegal in most of the other states. … I want my father to be out of custody. It’s also an issue that affects everyone in this country. Dana would like me to call attention to that: These laws are unjust.”

As for himself, Beal said doing all right despite being in lockup. During a previous stint in a Midwestern prison — again, for trucking weed cross country — he almost died after suffering a heart attack.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I just want to get out of here. We got the money [for bail] — we need co-signers. We need rich people to co-sign. A quarter million [dollars]. I need a couple of rich guys…or a couple of buildings.”

Pre-pandemic, Beal was a regular at a Chelsea Friday night dinner hosted by an artist who owns real estate. It so turned out that the colorful weekly meals were attended by seemingly all of Downtown’s major pot and ibogaine activists. Beal was always welcome since he brought weed. Unfortunately, though, he and the host are on opposite sides of the Russia-Ukraine War, so perhaps the artist would not be a likely co-signer for him.

“You could ask him,” he said. “But he’s backing Putin. A bit of a problem.”

Beal — known as one of the “godfathers” of marijuana legalization — intends to make the best of his situation. He vowed that cannabis will no longer be criminalized there by the time he’s through.

“The unintended consequence of this,” he said, “is we’re going to legalize pot in Idaho.”

On Saturday night there are two, back-to-back fundraisers for Beal’s legal defense, the first at the Ukrainian National Home, at 140 Second Ave., from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., followed by one at Von bar, at 3 Bleecker St., from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Both will include a discussion of ibogaine’s use by the Ukrainian military. The Von fundraiser was originally planned for the Overthrow boxing gym, at 9 Bleecker St. — the former Yippies headquarters — but there was reportedly concern about “everyone smoking pot” in the place.