URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n540/a03.html
Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2009
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
OLYMPIC TOKE?
2010 Torch Reminds Many Of Marijuana Joint
All hail - or inhale - the 2010 Olympic Torch.
Or, as it's jokingly known around Vancouver, the Olympic Toke.
Composed of stainless steel, aluminum and sheet moulding, the torch was designed to invoke snow, ice, skiing and skating, but to many, the metre-length white torch looks suspiciously like a marijuana joint, especially when lit.
That the torch bears a resemblance to Vancouver's biggest cash crop was evident right away to Jodie Emery, editor of Cannabis Culture magazine.
"A lot of people come to Vancouver because it's marijuana-friendly so I think people who already enjoy a joint themselves will feel a little more kinship to the Olympics," said Emery, who ran this month as a Green Party candidate in the provincial election.
"I'm sure the organizers didn't intend for it to look like a joint, but that's what a lot of people are seeing."
The association between toking and the Olympics didn't begin with the torch, of course.
At the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan, Whistler skier Ross Rebagliati won, then lost, the gold medal in snowboarding after testing positive for marijuana. The medal was returned after Rebagliati explained he had inhaled second-hand smoke.--
Give it back motherfuckers!