DENVER (AP) -- Former congressman Tom Tancredo, who made a deal with a documentary filmmaker to smoke marijuana if Colorado legalized the drug for recreational use, has backed off the bet.

KUSA-TV reports (http://on9news.tv/XHQvBa ) the former U.S. representative from suburban Denver said in an email Friday he would have to "welch" on the bet. He cited the negative example it would set for his grandchildren.

Tancredo launched a radio ad in October that compared marijuana prohibition to alcohol prohibition and said keeping pot illegal "steers Colorado money to criminals in Mexico."

Tancredo, a Republican, says in the email "I am especially concerned that the publicity may cause my grandkids to have to justify my actions to their peers" ... "and I would never want to do anything that puts them in a difficult situation."