MARIJUANA ACTIVIST AND CANDIDATE BUTTS OUT OF B.C. RACE

A marijuana activist who was running for the NDP in British Columbia
just quit the race.

Dana Larsen, 37, who was the candidate for the riding of West
Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky Country, submitted his resignation
to the B.C. campaign team and it was accepted, NDP Leader Jack Layton
told reporters in Toronto last night.

The riding is currently represented by the first Green MP, Blair
Wilson, who had become an Independent after he was kicked out of the
Liberal party.

The biography of Larsen on his official NDP website said he served as
editor of Cannabis Culture magazine from 1994 to 2004, was co-founder
of the B.C. Marijuana Party and managed a store selling marijuana
seeds for medicinal purposes.

"Dana is also the author of a humorous book called Hairy Pothead and
the Marijuana Stone," his website states.

Larsen resigned after a newspaper questioned the party about his
involvement with a Vancouver store that once sold seeds for coca
plants, which contain the alkaloids used to produce cocaine.

Larsen, founder of the Vancouver Seed Bank, said he resigned following
a discussion with NDP officials yesterday.

"I didn't want this to distract from the larger issues of the
campaign. Since it seemed to be something people would be focusing on,
I decided to submit my resignation," he said in an interview.

The store sells hundreds of kinds of seeds, he said, from tomatoes and
bananas to some "in the grey area of legalities."

Those include several kinds of marijuana, peyote and opium poppies.
Larsen is no longer involved with the store and an employee said it no
longer stocks coca seeds.