NDP CHOKES ON COCA CONNECTION

Candidate quits over former affiliation with seed bank

The NDP candidate in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast has quit over
concerns about his involvement in a company selling coca seeds.

"We just felt that the issue of the coca plants was a big distraction,
and clearly is not acceptable," Gerry Scott, the NDP's campaign
organizer in B.C., said yesterday.

Dana Larsen resigned after media reports about his role in the
Vancouver Seed Bank, which sells seeds for coca plants.

Larsen co-founded the seed bank and was its former manager. He no
longer works there.

Scott said Larsen was nominated as the NDP candidate more than 18
months ago, and the party knew he was a marijuana advocate.

The NDP supports decriminalizing marijuana, said Scott.

Larsen, 37, is a co-founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party and the
Marijuana Party of Canada.

For 10 years, he was editor of Cannabis Culture magazine and has
written a book titled Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Store.

In 2006, he helped set up and manage the Vancouver Seed Bank, a retail
outlet for seeds, including marijuana and poppies.

"I have no reason to believe that anything he disclosed at that time
was untrue," said Scott.

"He had started the campaign with the focus on medicare and forest
industry jobs and protecting the environment.

"This is a different matter, in our view. It's the coca plants. It
takes the debate in a different place, let's put it that way."
Marijuana advocate Marc Emery, who's known Larsen for 15 years, said
the bank has "this plant in the window that's a coca plant." "I guess
he must have talked about it," Emery said. "It's so stupid. And that's
the basis by which they're bouncing him." Emery said the NDP has
over-reacted, but Larsen has let down the marijuana community.

"I don't blame the party for reprimanding him, and asking him to
resign," he said. "We are particularly disappointed. We sent him out
there to make us proud.

"It sabotaged the candidacy that many of us across Canada were
extremely interested in. I just donated $500 to that campaign
yesterday." Larsen lives in Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast.
Neither he nor anyone at the Vancouver Seed Bank were available for
comment.

The NDP is looking for another candidate.