Joints, Blunts and Spliffs

CONTEMPORARY CANNABIS TRADECRAFT

Cannabis is globally renowned as the plant of 50,000 uses, although there aren’t quite that many ways to roll up your weed or hash, it’s critically important for every stoner to at least have a passing familiarity with the big three of the fine art of cannabis rolling: Joints, blunts and spliffs.

These days the huge popularity of dabbing and high potency concentrates of all kinds have spawned a peculiar stoner, that prefers to toke from expensive glassware rather than a humble joint.

Back in the day simple pipes and bongs were considered a stoner accessory and shishas/hookahs an exotic curiosity. Now a laboratory grade glass dabbing rig and a rudimentary welding kit or sleek high-tech vaporizers are de rigueur for the millennial stoner tribe.

Joints, blunts and spliffs are fundamental components of cannabis culture and still the most common means of enjoying hash and marijuana for the average stoner.

Old school roll ups are the most convenient, effective, portable and fun way to get your smoke on. Rolling your very own joints, blunts and spliffs is an art form and as the old saying goes “practice makes perfect”.

Veteran stoners can roll up basic spliffs and joints almost from muscle memory alone. Novices may not even know the precise difference between a joint and a spliff and may not even have an idea how to go about crafting a fine blunt. Fret not, dear reader.

After reading this blog you veteran stoners might just find yourselves inspired to roll up something different or outright spectacular for your next session.

And for those new to the joys of cannabis in the process of mastering rolling your own, allow us to set you straight on joints, blunts and spliffs.

JOINTS: SMOKE PURE

Strictly speaking, a joint is a roll up consisting of pure sinsemilla rolled in a rolling paper/papers, depending on how much you wish to pack in. Usually, 0.3-0.5g of ground potent bud should be sufficient for a decent joint.

In the US and Canada, the above definition holds true mostly. However, in Europe and most of the rest of the world, the terms joint and spliff are completely interchangeable. Tobacco culture and imported hashish in Europe are the obvious culprits.

Attitudes are changing and rather than differentiating between a spliff or a joint, a European stoner might smoke a mix of tobacco and cannabis or “smoke pure”, meaning an exclusive marijuana roll up. Old habits die-hard and hash lovers will probably always blend hash with tobacco when they roll up.

US joints are usually smaller than the average European roll up. A typical US joint is a single small size rolling paper about the length of your baby finger rolled into a lil fatty. Larger roll ups in the US packed with greater quantities of weed approximately 1-5g are usually reserved for cones or blunts.

BLUNTS: BLAZING BIG LEAGUE!

Blunts are the roll-up of choice for the cannabis connoisseur. Mastering the fine art of blunt rolling is not as challenging as it once was. Let us venture down memory lane again to a time before the flavoured, packed for freshness, commercial blunt wraps of Today.

In the era before blunt wraps, rolling a blunt was an operation requiring a delicate pair of hands, a sharp knife and a traditional cigar or cigarillo to stuff with bud.

Of course, a regular old stoogie doesn’t come with a gummed rim to seal like standard rolling papers and modern blunt wraps, so you must lick the foul tasting bee-jeesus out of the thing. Worst of all the outer shell of a cigar is fragile, so flip those blunts fast.

Then to finish, run the flame of a lighter over the saliva seal directly after rolling to cook it shut. Blunt rolling was a messy business, plus there was that nasty pile of tobacco, formerly the innards of the cigar, to dispose of too.

Blunt wraps take all the hassle out of rolling a blunt and they taste absolutely delicious to boot. If you can roll a joint you can definitely roll a blunt with a blunt wrap and a little practice.

Flavoured blunt wraps even taste great when you give them a normal lick to wet the gummed seal. As always you must be gentle rolling up a blunt wrap, but no more so than as is the case with a typical spliff or joint.

By virtue of the sheer carrying-load a blunt provides, it is inevitably the most potent kind of roll-up. Moreover, it’s not uncommon for those with a high tolerance and a top-shelf stash to infuse blunts with a layer of crumbled hash or even a gooey hash oil center filling. We told you smoking blunts is blazing big league!

SPLIFFS: A PINCH OF POISON AND EVOLUTION

The classic spliff is a blend of weed and/or hash with just a pinch of tobacco. Most recreational cannabis users throughout Europe and Asia think nothing of rolling up a mix of marijuana and tobacco. Most would never light up a cigarette, but spliff culture was until recently dominated by hashish.

Hash will burn fine in a pipe, bong or vaporizer, but in a roll up it needs a partner to keep the whole thing burning evenly. Tobacco and hash are a marriage of convenience and with the rise of tobacco substitutes, viable alternatives are now available.

Furthermore, the indoor cultivation revolution of the past 20 years and recent legalisation successes have dramatically increased the supply of flowers to European stoners. High-grade weed is as readily available throughout Europe as it is in the Americas.

Access to top-shelf buds has transformed the European cannabis market. Weed has definitely replaced hash as the smoke of choice and ultra potent concentrates have a growing market share.

It might take a generation, but the European spliff is on a similar evolution trajectory to the US joint becoming purer and a little shorter.

Spliffs in Ireland and the UK used to be exclusively three paper constructions with one rolling paper folded on the line of gum to stick the other two together for a nice long straight spliff.

Recently the trend for rolling up a spliff with one king size rolling paper has gained popularity and is definitely overtaking old school spliff construction or “skinning up”. This is also an emerging trend in the rest of the continent.

Unbleached and chlorine-free rolling papers are perfect for rolling the very best tasting joints and spliffs and are rapidly gaining global market share. Spanish and Dutch stoners have been on to these fantastic rolling papers for a while and the rest of the world is finally catching up.

SMOKE 'EM IF YOU GOT 'EM

Whatever cannabis roll-up you prefer, be it joints, blunts or spliffs, our advice is simple smoke 'em if got 'em. There will be times in life when you will run out of weed and hash, your stash will one day be depleted and you will not be prepared nor possess the means to replace it.

Hopefully, these occasions will be a rarity, but every stoner runs out one day - this is an eventuality sure as night follows day. Until that day thoroughly enjoy all the joints, blunts and spliffs you can.