Posted by ded on April 24, 2001 at 03:14:37:
Two Smells You Don't Forget
Updated: Mon, Apr 23 08:07 AM EDT
QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) - What do marijuana and tear gas have in common? They both have smells that Secretary of State Colin Powell says he can never forget.
While waiting for the start of the official dinner for the leaders attending the Summit of the Americas on Saturday, Powell wandered up to a small group of journalists who asked what it was like to smell tear gas in the air again.
"I got a whiff in the hall," Powell -- the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- said.
He added quickly that he was not affected by the clouds of eye-stinging gas that police fired repeatedly to keep anti-globalization protesters from storming the summit security zone in the historic city.
The smell is one an old military man can never forget, he said -- just like that of marijuana, which also floated on the air amid crowds of demonstrators.
"An old infantry man always remembers what tear gas and pot smell like when you walk into the barracks," Powell said with a smile, before walking away to join the party.