Report: Olympic torch resembles a joint

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 20 (UPI) -- The ceremonial torch for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, resembles a hand-rolled marijuana joint, observers say.

Unofficially designated British Columbia's largest cash crop, marijuana is popular in Canada's westernmost province, and the Toronto Star's bureau there said there's a lot of nudging and winking about the torch's similarity to a "spliff."

"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," said Jodie Emery, editor of Cannabis Culture magazine.

The 3-foot-long Olympic torch will be carried by 12,000 people in relays across 28,000 miles before the Games. It was designed to resemble the lines left behind by skiers and skaters on snow and ice, and is built out of stainless steel, aluminum and sheet molding, the report said.

Suzanne Reeves, the Vancouver organizing committee's director of communications for the Olympic torch relay, dismissed the claims of the resemblance.

"It's quite magical. Most people's reactions are emotional," she said.