How To Roll And Smoke A Joint

A good old stoner session is a great way to relax with friends, digest some cool content, and get high while hiding the fact that you still don’t know how to roll your own joint. It’s a welcome break from having to resort to apple-pipes, pop cans or a heavy-hitting bong toke, which is all you can use when you’re alone. 

Terra Tonic, the online weed store, has the ultimate guide to rolling smooth, smokeable joints that maximize your bud and the quality of your stone.

Tired of being that one friend who gets chirped for sloppy joints, canoeing blunts, or just not being able to contribute to the roll?

Get the Right Gear

To roll the perfect joint, you’ll need to make sure you have the right tools for the job. In addition to your preferred bud, your cannabis kit should include:

• A quality cannabis/herb grinder
• Appropriate rolling papers
• Filter paper (if desired)

Weed Grinders

There are all kinds of weed grinders available, from the very basic wood-and-pin ones to multi-chamber steel pucks. The most popular ones are stainless steel and come with three chambers and a lid: the bladed chamber where you place your unground bud, with holes that lead to the second compartment where the finely ground cannabis can be found. This compartment would ideally have a mesh bottom leading to the third chamber, where ultra-fine THC crystals, or “keif,” collects – a fun little top up you can sprinkle on top of your weed when you roll your joint for a super-potent stone… just make sure you have plenty of snacks and water on hand. Keif catchers, as this compartment has come to be known, are essentially for strains like Pink Cake that offer glittering trichomes with lots of crystal.

While you can get really fancy when it comes to grinders, you really don’t need very much to get the job done – the key is to break down dense buds and filter out stems and shake (leaves) that can lead to lumpy joints that are hard to keep lit, smoke too slowly, or too harshly. Evenly ground weed will pull smoothly and evenly when smoked.

Rolling Papers

When shopping for rolling paper, it’s important to note that papers for smoking marijuana are not the same as cigarette paper. Cigarette paper is thicker, coarser, and burns quickly to compliment tobacco; try using this for a joint, and you’ll end up wasting a lot of good weed as the paper burns away much faster than bud. Cannabis rolling paper is much thinner – in fact, you can purchase them in various thinness depending on preference. It’s also smoother and burns slower, complimenting slow-smoking cannabis. Most online weed stores offer rolling papers for purchase.

Popular brands include the classic French-made Zig Zags, or hemp-based RAWs, in a variety of sizes and thicknesses, allowing you to roll little pinners or massive cones. You can also purchase cigar paper to roll blunts, but those are a little much for solo sessions. Flavoured rolling papers are also fun but often don’t stick or burn as well as regular papers.

Filter Paper

This is really a matter of preference. Some people refuse to smoke without a filter, while others don’t care either way. Filters are ideal if you plan to add kief to your joints or plan to smoke a very dense strain, as the resulting resin can gum up the end of your joint, blocking airflow and leaving dark, bitter-tasting stains on your lips. You can order pre-rolled filters from a marijuana store online or just roll one from a piece of torn heavy paper.

Cannabis Content

Once you have your gear, you need to choose your weed, which will depend on several things: are you smoking at night or during the day? Are you smoking to relax or to focus on work? A small, Sativa or Sativa-dominant hybrid joint rolled with standard-sized papers is probably appropriate for the workday, with room for a top-up later in the day. These “pinners” can give you a productive buzz with around a quarter to a half gram of weed.

If you’re smoking socially or before bed, an Indica or Indica-dominant hybrid in larger sized paper will provide a deliciously dank stone, packing 1.4grams of flower on average. A true stoner will keep a variety in their kit, with a few different strains and sizes of rolling papers to suit their mood and situation – because there really is no wrong way to get high.

Spin that Joint

Now that you’re ready to roll, it’s important to consider a few things with your workstation:

• Airflow
• Steady Environment
• Work Surface

Airflow

Like any herb, finely ground weed can easily become airborne. When it’s time to roll, make sure you’re not doing so outside on a windy day or beside a window because if it blows away, it’ll be hard to salvage without also picking up dust, dirt, carpet fibres, or whatever else is on the floor that you definitely don’t want to smoke.

Steady Environment

A steady surface will go hand-in-hand with airflow, as too much movement will cause weed loss as well. Rolling while riding in a car on a bumpy road, for example, can be a recipe for disaster. One pothole could send your weed flying.

Work Surface

Whether rolling at a table or freehand on your lap, it’s good to lay down a sheet of paper or a rolling tray underneath your hands to catch any flyaway. You can’t always help someone walking briskly past you as you roll, or sometimes you’ve put too much flower in the paper, and it spills out as you roll. No problem – your work surface is protecting you from wastage.

The Session

And finally – here are your steps to rolling and smoking a fabulous joint:

1. lay your ground weed evenly along the inside centerfold of the rolling paper, leaving space at both ends, but more so on the end that will be your mouthpiece. If you like cone-shaped joints, you can also lay the weed out more heavily at the smoking end of the joint. 
2. Place your filter paper at the mouthpiece end of the paper; filters can help you roll by giving you resistance to hold the paper against.
3. Take both ends of the joint between the index finger and thumbs of both hands, and roll the line of bud back and forth to maneuver it toward the non-gummed edge of the paper until you’re able to tuck the corner from the mouthpiece over to form a tube; at this point, you’ll be able to gain momentum to roll the rest of the tube or cone. 
4. Lick the gummed edge lightly but evenly to activate the adhesive, and roll until the entire edge is sealed. 
5. Insert a pen or similar item into the joint’s open end to gently press the flower down to compact it. Be careful not to pack the joint too tightly, or you risk ripping it altogether or inhibiting airflow that allows the joint to smoke.
6. Pinch the open end between your thumb and index finger and twist to close. You can rip it off or use it as a wick to light your joint.
7. Spark it! Lighting a joint is not an instant sensation like lighting a cigarette or candle, but rather like kindling a campfire. To get it going, you’ll need to light the joint and follow with a series of short tokes to pull the park along with oxygen into the joint and get the weed burning evenly. 

Once your joint is toking properly, you can switch to long, slow tokes and enjoy your stone!

Ready to try your new joint-rolling skills? Head to Terra Tonic’s online marijuana store to order quality Canadian-grown cannabis at great prices. With same-day delivery in the GTA and a free gram with every ¼ oz bag of flower, we’re sure your next joint will elevate your high!