"Thomas" - When A Cigar Is Not Just A Cigar

Will the image of a cigar, stuffed with marijuana, become so embedded in the 12 jurors' collective consciousness that Steven Thomas goes home empty-handed? 

In matters of law at least in the last decade, a cigar has not been just a cigar.  We saw how, thanks to Kenneth Starr's preoccupation with the smoking material, the cigar stuck in the minds of those howling to impeach former President Bill Clinton.  In fact, to this day it's difficult to picture Clinton and "that woman" in our mind's eye sans cigar.

During opening arguments defense attorney for NL Industries Michael Jones presented such a vivid image of Steven Thomas's unrolling a cigar and then rolling it chuck full of marijuana that it stays lodged in the heads of many [or so they tell me]. 

Let's replay Jones' statement on this item which could prove to a matter of unusual and unexpected import in this trial.

Michael Jones, opening arguments in Steven Thomas vs. Clinton L. Mallett et al.:

"Age eight, after his [Steven Thomas] brothers being his principal playmates, the counselor reports: 'The patient reports he began using marijuana at age eight or nine.  He began using it daily in the last six months to a year.  He reports that he would use five days out of seven.  He would not use on Saturday or Sunday. He reports that he could use anything from one to seven blunts.'

"A blunt is a particular form of marijuana. It is made by taking a cigar, unrolling it, and putting marijuana in it.  The benefits, for those who would enjoy marijuana - the disadvantages for everybody else - is that it allows you to put more marijuana into the blunt than you could into a regular joint."

Could "Thomas" morph into a Cigargate joke, with the laugh on Steven Thomas, Peter Earle and Motley Rice?  Me?  Every day since I read opening arguments the cigar pops up in my mind.  There's an eight-year old boy dutifully unrolling and rolling ...