I’m afraid this is text only for the moment, but I will try and add pictures at a later date. I’ve tried to be as descriptive as possible, but if you’re unsure there’s many videos and tutorials out there to help.
How to roll an American Style Joint
You will need: Cannabis, rolling papers, your tongue. Grinder and roach card optional.
Grind your bud up nice and fine, picking out seeds and stems.
Place your paper so the sticky gummed edge is facing upwards and is at the top of the paper.
Add as much ground bud as you need.
Now to roll it. If you’re not using a roach card/filter this is really a matter of trial and error, and practice. Roll the bud evenly in the paper, it may help you to start at one end and roll back and forth along the paper.
Keep your forefinger and thumb holding the end you started at, and use your other finger and thumb to roll the bud along the join evenly.
Once the bud has been molded into a nice cylinder or cone shape, the next step is simply rolling the inside edge between the bud and paper nice and evenly. This is the hardest part of the roll, and will take practice.
Once you’ve got the inside edge (the edge closest to your face when you started the joint) tucked in, it’s just a matter of rolling up so the joint meets the gummed edge.
Lick the gum, continue to roll, and you’re done!
A good tip is to lightly tap the joint vertically on a hard surface prior to lighting it. This will ensure the bud is nice and evenly compacted within the paper. Don’t over do it though, there’s nothing worse than a joint so tight you can’t smoke it.
How to roll an European Style Joint
NOTE: Europeans, by and large, use tobacco in their joints. This is probably because of the days when Indians primarily smoked hash instead of bud, and the Europeans started trading with them. The Europeans didn’t really use Hookah pipes, or make Bhang (an Indian cannabis drink), so they chose to smoke their hash with something they already smoked heavily and enjoyed, tobacco. Tobacco, as you probably know, is worse for your health than cannabis. So if you’re visiting from the States or Canada, just be aware that if someone passes you a spliff, it will probably contain tobacco.
Anyway, on to the European joint.
You will need: Cannabis, rolling papers, rolling tobacco or a cigarette, roach card, and your tongue. Grinder is optional.
Grind your bud up nice and fine, picking out seeds and stems.
Place your paper so the sticky gummed edge is facing upwards and is at the top of the paper.
Taking your roach card, cut a small piece (size is personal preference, but between 1cm and 2cm squared is a rough guide). And roll it into a tube. Place at one end of the paper (either end, it’s up to you to learn which you prefer).
Take your rolling tobacco (or empty your cigarette) and place a nice thinnish layer along the paper until it meets the roach.
Add as much ground bud as you need.
Add an optional layer of tobacco on top, according to taste/rolling preferences.
Roll the joint starting at the roach, again the technique is to hold the “roach end” of the joint and to roll along the joint until it’s a nice even shape, licking the gummed edge, and then continuing the roll.
Some people like to roll the joint first, and then insert the roach afterwards, rolling is all about experimentation, so do whatever works best for you.
Again, just lightly tap that spliff vertically on a hard surface.
About roaches
In America and Canada, the roach is the very end of an already smoked joint, the tiny bit that’s left afterwards, whether a card filter has been used or not. In the UK we call this “the ends” or just “ends” and the roach is the actual card we use to roll a filter. I’m British, so I’m calling the actual card filter the roach, i’m not referring to “ends” as I would call it.
If you choose to use a roach in your joints note that playing around with them makes a world of difference to your roll. Some people like them fat, some thin, some people fold shapes or letters into them to prevent material from the joint going into your mouth (although a well rolled joint should prevent this anyway).
Experiment, if you’re finding that your joints aren’t quite up to scratch then change the size and shape of your roach, the more your experiment, the more you’ll learn.
Can I use a cigarette filter in my joints?
Yes you can, but many argue that it also filters out a large amount of THC and other canniboids that get you high. I have never found any sort of research on this and anything you hear will be speculation or anecdote. Take it from me that I have smoked a joint with a filter before and it did get me high, but also, I’ve never met anyone who consistently uses “proper” filters in their joints.
What papers should I buy?
EXPERIMENT! There’s a huge selection out there, thick, thin, hemp, flax, raw, refined, even transparent cellulose papers. See which ones you like best.
What’s the differnce between a joint, a blunt, and a spliff?
A joint and a spliff are the same thing (despite what many people will claim). Some will say that a joint contains tobacco and a spliff doesn’t (or vice versa), or that oneis bigger than the other. This isn’t true, while some people in some places will use the two words differently, they are essentially the same thing; cannabis rolled into a cigarette of any size, either pure or mixed with tobacco/smoking blend.
A blunt is cannabis rolled or stuffed into a cigar skin, without tobacco.
Some people in the UK will call a joint without any tobacco a blunt, but this is incorrect. A cigar skin must be used for it to be considered a blunt.
