POWELL NO STRANGER TO TEAR GAS, LIKENS IT TO POT

QUEBEC CITY, April 21 (Reuters) - What do marijuana and tear gas have
in common? They both have smells that U.S. 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
hippy-like 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.