Beauty pageant for unwed "natural born women" ONLY! Fancy that!

Yes, dear readers, it's the Miss Marijuana Beauty Pageant, now accepting applications. They're looking for "the type of girl all the guys want, and all the girls want to be friends with", like the shining example pictured at right. But here's the thing. If you're a wrinkly (over 30) or married or a member of the "transgendered community", don't waste your time filling in the app. You're disqualified! Only "unwed" and "natural born" females between the ages of 18 and 30 are eligible.

If accepted, contestants will upload a profile on which the public -- or at least those interested in marijuana and beautiful women -- will vote. Voters will narrow the field down to 53 women, one for each state plus one for Canada. Hardly seems fair, considering that MJ is illegal in most states but legal in all ten Canadian provinces and three territories!

Online polling will take place for six or seven weeks, after which the finalists will go to the in-person [in-the-flesh? Ed.] contest in Las Vegas... of course. The finale will include a "personal interview question" [such as? Ed.] and two struts down the catwalk -- once in a bathing suit and once in a gownless evening strap.

Winner gets the coveted Miss Marijuana title and the crown to go with it, plus 25 large, plus a car, although what kind of car hasn't been specified. Something made in Mexico, perhaps. The pageant's founder, Howard the Bear [Ed., please check spelling. It says "Baer" here but I think that's a mistake.] told the Georgia Straight, "It'll be a fashion show, it'll be a concert -- lotta fun... I hope!"

Mr Baer [Bear?] says the pageant has so far attracted over 5200 would-be contestants. He adds, "We have so many signed up from Canada that it looks like we may have to break it up into provinces. Originally, we were going to do it just as one, but we have over 500 from there now." He did not say whether Canuck prime minister, noted for being both a feminist and a sometime smoker, was promoting the contest up there in the Great No-longer-white North.