A B.C. marijuana activist's dreams of running for the federal NDP has gone up in smoke.
Dana Larsen, 37, has pulled out of the running for a seat in the West Vancouver - Sunshine Coast - Sea to Sky Country riding after media reports about his involvement in a Vancouver store that sells seeds to grow illegal drugs, including coca seedlings.
The riding is currently represented by the first Green MP, Blair Wilson, who became an Independent after being kicked out of the Liberal Party.
According to his profile on the NDP website, Larsen is a senior manager of the Vancouver Seed Bank, which sells seeds to grow marijuana and poppy plants for medicinal purposes. The store used to sell seeds for coca plants.
Larsen says he agreed to pull out of the race Wednesday after deciding the controversy could distract from the national campaign for the NDP party.
Videotape surfaced Wednesday showing the candidate smoking numerous joints inside of the Vancouver Seed Store. The video was part of a segment from the now defunct Pot TV Network, the web-based video channel owned by "Prince of Pot" activist Mark Emery.
Larsen served with Emery as a founding editor of Cannabis Culture Magazine from 1994 to 2004, and penned a humourous book called Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone in 2007.
The Burnaby, B.C. native is a co-founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party and ran for the federal Marijuana Party in 2000.
Larsen joined the NDP in 2003.
Officials with the national NDP campaign in B.C. have pledged to find another candidate "in short order'' to replace Larson.
Federal NDP leader Jack Layton has not explained why Larsen was not vetted more thoroughly before being allowed to carry the party's banner.
