Roll a Marijuana Joint

Smoking a joint is a common way of consuming cannabis. Rolling joints is a skill all medical cannabis patients should have. This article will show you how to prepare and roll a marijuana joint. This is a certified hood classic.

10 Second Summary

1. Fold the paper in half lengthwise with the glue side facing up.
2. Sprinkle ½ gram of ground marijuana evenly along the crease.
3. Roll it back and forth until everything is even and cylindrical.
4. Add the filter at one end.
5. Tuck and roll the back half of the joint.
6. Lick the edge of the paper and finish rolling to seal.
7. Twist the end of the joint to keep the marijuana from falling out.

Steps

Rolling a Basic Joint

  1. Choose your rolling paper. Choose thin rice or wheat straw paper in standard or king size. Plan to tear your paper down to size--wide and square is a good starting shape that offers versatility. You can get papers online, in convenience stores, at your dispensary, and at tobacco shops.
    • Look for papers that burn slowly, evenly, and won’t give a bad flavor. Some good papers to use include RAW natural hemp rolling papers, Smoking papers and orange Zig-zags (if you’re feeling old-school).
    • If you plan to carry your papers around with you, get a rolling paper protector. Put your rolling papers in this metal case to prevent them from bending and tearing.
    • Carry spare paper. Gummed strips torn from a spare paper are great for mending tears, leaks, and gaps.
  2. Prepare and grind the marijuana. Handle the flower heads with care to protect the delicate THC glands and use a weed grinder or sharp scissors to break up the bud. Remove any seeds, stems, and leaves, and grind up the buds into smaller pieces.
    • Aim for an even grind. Larger buds burn more slowly, which will cause your joint to burn unevenly, while an excessively fine grind will make rolling more difficult.
    • Store unused buds inside an airtight container in a cool, dry place.
    • The amount of marijuana you'll need depends on how large the paper is. Generally, though, ½ a gram is plenty for a single joint. When smoking a joint with friends, you might need up to ¾ of a gram. Blunts take the most, usually between 1-2 grams.
    • Certain types of grinders have a special compartment to collect kief, which are the trichomes of the cannabis plant. Kief has a higher concentration of THC than of the flowers. Some people choose to sprinkle some kief over the marijuana before rolling for extra potency.
  3. Make your mix. This is optional, but some people add tobacco, leaf or another herbal smoking mixture to the bud so it can "breathe" in the joint. Whatever you use, be sure the consistency is even and that you've broken up or removed any lumps or woody bits.
    • Cannabis leaf. Cannabis leaf is used a lot in commercial marijuana. Ideally, the leaves are well-cured; if you get ones that came from the top of a flowering female plant, they can be really potent.
    • Tobacco is a frequent adulterant in joints rolled in Europe; these joints are called "spliffs." Some users believe tobacco helps the cannabis burn properly and improves the taste of the smoke. The downside is the risk of unintended nicotine addiction.
    • Hashish. Hashish comes in many different forms with huge variations in quality. Most contain plant material and binding agents. The best is made by rubbing the sticky resin from flowering-tops, and the worst is full of chemicals. Hash is normally heated with a flame, crumbled into a powder and then mixed with tobacco or herbal smoking mixtures.
      • Use hashish with care. Some users experience adverse reactions that range from mild anxiety to severe panic. Paranoia is possible and, although rare, acute psychotic reactions can occur.
    • Resin oil. Genuine resin oil is very hard to come by and is incredibly potent. It comes in the form of a black, brown or transparent oily fluid that gets smeared across the rolling papers or blended into the mix. If you have a membership with a dispensary, you can probably purchase oil contained in syringes.
    • Kief. As mentioned earlier in the article, kief is a term for the resin glands of the cannabis plant that are rich in THC. Sprinkle some kief, either over the marijuana before rolling, or on the joint after rolling, to give it an extra boost of psychoactive THC.
  4. Make the filter tip. This is a piece of index card that's inserted into the end of a marijuana cigarette. It prevents a marijuana cigarette from clogging up, keeps pieces of marijuana from falling out, allows the smoke to flow through, filters out a little tar and stops a marijuana cigarette from dissolving in your mouth when it burns down to the end.
    • Tear a thin strip from an index card or business card. Fold it three times to make a pleat and roll the rest of the unfolded filter around the folded. It should look like a "W" in a circle.
    • The width of the roach is a matter of personal preference. Wider ones let more smoke through, which produces a rougher smoke, while thinner ones cool the smoke but run a greater risk of clogging. Shoot for somewhere in the middle.
    • Some smoking shops sell little booklets of ready to use filter tips, which generally consist of little strips of hardened paper neatly cut to size. Alternately, you can buy cellulose filter tips like those used in tobacco cigarettes. These can be found at smoking shops and probably your dispensary.
    • Although some people refer to the filter tip as a "roach", this is incorrect. A roach is the tip of the joint that is left over after smoking. They’re related, but not always the same thing.
  5. Roll the joint. There are several ways to roll a basic joint; the method depicted below is a freestyle roll.
    • Tear out one of the papers from the booklet and fold it in half lengthwise being sure the side with the glue is up.
    • Twist one of the bottom corners of the paper. This will be the front.
    • Place the marijuana inside. Distribute it evenly along the length of the paper to ensure an even burn.
    • Don't overload it or the joint won't close properly. On the other hand, don't be stingy with the mix or you'll end up with a "pinner."
    • Pick everything up and roll it back and forth until the mix in the rolling paper is evenly dispersed and cylindrical in shape.
    • Lay the filter down in the center at one end of the joint. Putting the filter in before rolling saves hassle and makes it more likely that you'll get a perfect fit.
    • Proceed to tuck and roll up the back half of the joint.
    • Lick the sticky strip of the paper and seal the joint. Lightly twist the end of the joint to keep the contents from falling out.
  6. Rolling inside out. Some people prefer to roll the joint 'inside out', where the paper is held upside down with the glued edge held towards you, sticky side down. This technique is generally harder to perform, but will get rid of most of the stingy smoke caused by the burning of excess paper. To roll a joint inside out, simply follow the steps as you would with a normal joint, but when all rolled up, lick the non-gummed rim of paper where you can see the glued edge slightly shine through. Carefully put some pressure on the area where you can see the gummed edge to make the two layers stick. Finally, tear off the excess paper when the paper has dried and twist the end to prevent your contents from falling out.

Rolling a Joint With a Dollar Bill

This is a simple technique used by beginners. If you're a novice or have trouble with freestyle rolling, using a dollar bill is a good way to start.

  1. Load a dollar bill with your mix and shape it by gently rolling back and forth.
  2. Put a rolling paper sticky side up between your mix and the dollar bill.
  3. Fold the bill in half and roll it upward with your thumbs. Make sure that the rolling paper is wrapping around itself to form a cylinder.
  4. Remove the joint from the dollar bill. Keep firm pressure on the paper so that it doesn't unravel.
  5. Lick the sticky strip of the paper and seal the marijuana cigarette. Lightly twist both ends to keep your mix from falling out.

Rolling a Blunt

A blunt is essentially a joint rolled using cigar paper rather than regular rolling paper.

  1. Get your materials. You'll need a cigar, marijuana mix, a knife or scissors, grinder and lighter.
  2. Cut it. Lick your cigar to make it moist. Take a blade or scissors and cut it lengthwise from butt to tip. With your thumb, slide the insides out. Do it slowly and gently so you don't tear the cigar wrapper.
  3. Tear or cut off the rounded end of the cigar. Creating this rectangular shape helps to decrease the chances of the wrapper rolling shut prematurely. Separate and use only the innermost layer of the cigar wrap so you'll get less nicotine
  4. Lick the edges to seal up any small tears. Then fold the wrapper down the center like you would when rolling a regular joint.
  5. Sprinkle a line of mix evenly down the length of the marijuana cigar. Be generous. You have to use enough mix to support the size of the wrap; otherwise, it'll collapse in on itself while you’re trying to smoke.
  6. Roll it. Carefully fold and roll the blunt upward, shaping it as you go. Tuck the shorter side of the wrap around the mix and continue rolling. Be careful not to pinch the ends shut. Lick the remaining paper lengthwise and press down carefully.
  7. Bake the blunt. Run the flame of your lighter up and down the length of your blunt in order to “bake” it. Spin the marijuana cigar as you work. Your goal is to darken the color slightly and dry the wrap without setting the blunt on fire.
  8. Light it up. Hold the flame to the tip of the blunt. Spin it around to evenly distribute the heat and minimize the chance for developing a run.

Tips

  • Once you get used to rolling basic joints, try your hand at rolling trick joints!
  • Marijuana that's out in the open can produce odors into the air. Have a bottle of air freshener and give the room a spray when you're finished rolling.
  • Store unused joints in airtight containers. Pill bottles work well.
  • Rolling is basically an art. It will take practice to get good at it; there are many interpretations of the best way to go about it and you should do it carefully and with love.
  • Consider saving the roaches for later use. Often times, resin may accumulate and have a higher THC content. Once you have a decent amount, run the buds through a grinder and roll an all-roach joint.
  • The point of twisting the tip is to make sure none of the contents spill out
  • Make sure it isn't too tight but not too loose either. Try to roll it as firm as a cigarette.
  • Don’t roll it too tightly. It needs airflow to burn.
  • You can use a pen to push and compact the marijuana once you've rolled a joint. This should give you extra room to fit in any material that might have fallen out while you were rolling. Repeating the process of compacting the marijuana and stuffing more should give you a joint with considerable thickness (often referred to as a "fatty").
  • If you have a hard time getting the weed into the joint or blunt, you can use “tools” like a folded piece of paper or a playing card to help get it in more quickly and evenly.
  • If you want to add in some kief, from a jar or that got collected in your grinder, you can use the stick on a pen cap as a perfect little scoop.
  • Joints rolled into a cone shape burn better than straight joints, but are harder to roll.
  • Crumple your rolling papers into a ball and unfold them before rolling the joint. This will make them much easier to roll.
  • Some people think a coffee grinder works better for collecting kief than a normal grinder. Experiment to figure out what works best for you.

Warnings

  • Never smoke and drive. Much like alcohol, marijuana can reduce your reaction time. You don’t want any blood on your hands.
  • Follow the marijuana laws for your location. Marijuana is more legal in some places than in others, and even in the places where it is legal the laws can be very complex.

Things You'll Need

  • Marijuana buds
  • Herb grinder
  • Rolling papers
  • Other herbal material (such as tobacco)
  • Scissors
  • Cigar
  • Lighter

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