NDP WEED OUT LARSON

Brass Claim Pot Activist Is 'Ineligible' To Run

It must have seemed like a bad-trip flashback for Dana Larsen.

Shortly after announcing his run for the B.C. NDP leadership
Wednesday morning, the controversial 39-year-old pot activist and
failed federal NDP candidate found out second-hand that party brass
apparently wanted to weed him out.

Party president Moe Sihota told The Province that Larsen is
"currently ineligible and may be ultimately ineligible," to run for
the provincial NDP leadership, because his membership had lapsed, and
he had already been declared ineligible for the federal NDP in 2008.

Larsen can easily apply to renew his membership, but the party's
rules committee will judge whether Larsen's federal NDP ineligibility
will apply to the provincial NDP, when they meet on Jan. 6, Sihota said.

The party is set to select a new leader in April, after ex-leader
Carole James was recently forced out by about one-third of her MLAs.

When asked if the party is trying to bar Larsen to avoid the type of
damaging publicity that flared during his aborted run in the 2008
federal election, Sihota said: "No. I'm in favour of the application
of the rules . . . I won't pass judgment on the attributes of any candidate."

Larsen's campaign went up in smoke after widely circulated videos of
him driving stoned on pot and dropping LSD proved embarrassing for
leader Jack Layton, and Larsen said he voluntarily stepped down to
quell the "distraction."

Larsen, who co-founded the B.C. Marijuana Party in 2002, also hosted
an Internet show on a website run by party leader Marc Emery.

"I don't know what to tell you. I'm just getting nice and fried,"
Larsen announced on one show in December 2000.

Larsen, director of three medical pot outlets, launched his bid
Wednesday while standing in front of a price list of marijuana
products. He was asked if he would light up some of his product to
show support for legalizing pot.

"I won't be doing that today, sorry," he said with a nervous laugh.

The Province pressed him on whether a replay of 2008 wouldn't happen,
with NDP brass blocking his electoral efforts.

He said the provincial leadership race is a different situation, and
"I don't anticipate any problems."