MAYORAL CANDIDATE KEN LARSEN, FOUNDER OF CHURCH, SAYS DRUG WAR IS A WAR OF
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION

Besides protesting police crackdowns on Liberty Park drum circlers and
State Street cruisers, Salt Lake City mayoral candidate Ken Larsen founded
the Church of the Hemp Goddess.

Larsen says he formed the religion five years ago to "dramatize . . . that
the drug war is a war of religious persecution, where the majority is
enforcing their religious views on the minority."

Although Larsen says he has "never touched, much less inhaled" marijuana,
he insists pot is no more harmful than wine, peyote or kava juice, all
stimulants that are used in religious ceremonies. Larsen says marijuana
should not be treated as an illegal drug.

Larsen has performed several marriages, two recorded, in his role as
"mouth" of the Church of the Hemp Goddess. He also is an ordained minister
with the Church of Universal Life.

Born and reared in Provo, Larsen graduated from Brigham Young University in
1974 with a degree in herpetology, the study of reptiles. Now he works as a
researcher at the University of Utah, studying the effect of jet lag on
rats.