NDP CANDIDATE SPOOFS HARRY POTTER

VANCOUVER - A federal NDP candidate has written a book that reads like
something J.K. Rowling might have conjured up, if she smoked B.C. bud.

It's called Hairy Pothead and features a character with the same name
who lives an ordinary life until he's rescued by a biker, gets a glass
bong and is taken to Cannabis Castle, where he attends Hempwards
School of Herbcraft and Weedery and smokes a lot of marijuana.

The parody of Rowling's hit Harry Potter series is written by Dana
Larsen, the NDP candidate in the riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine
Coast.

Larsen's Hairy Pothead learns to play Qannabbi instead of Quidditch
and meets Delirious Bake instead of Sirius Black.

Larsen said he's not concerned that Hairy Pothead might put off some
voters.

The New Democrat said that he's always been up-front about his
marijuana activism -- even during his nomination, which he won earlier
this year by acclamation after nobody else ran.

Larsen, 36, manages the Vancouver Seed Bank, which sells marijuana
seeds by mail order and is the former editor of Cannabis Culture
Magazine. "I figure I know more about pot and marijuana issues than
almost anyone else in the world, so I think I was uniquely qualified
to write this book."