Learning how to smoke a joint is all about practice. That’s what makes it so much fun! But if you’ve never smoked a joint before, where do you even start?
You’re in luck, my inexperienced friend. The all-things-cannabis experts are here to bestow upon you the wisdom won from a lifetime (yeah, we’re that old) smoking the wacky weed.
In this article, we’ll give you all the best tips we’ve discovered over the years — some basic, some a little out there.
Whether you’re brand-new to the ganja-smoking game or a stoner-of-yore like us, you’ll find some valuable tidbits to help you learn how to smoke a joint for the best experience possible.
What Is A Joint?
Any exploration of how to smoke a joint starts — or should start — with the most basic question of all: what the heck am I holding in my hand?
Don’t be embarrassed if you’ve asked yourself this question a time or two. We wondered the same thing when we first started.
Smokable cannabis comes in so many shapes and sizes it can be difficult to discern what exactly is making its way around the smoke circle in your general direction.
We’re here to help!
When it comes to sucking on Mary Jane (oooh, that sounds dirty!), you’ve really only got four options:
- Joint
- Blunt
- Spliff
- Vape pen
Sure, there’s the bong/dab rig option, but you’d have to be extremely high — we’re talking well on your way to the moon — to mistake a bong for a blunt.
You’ve also got options like the Thai stick and the cross joint but, really, these are just variations on a theme.
We’ll talk about blunts and spliffs in the next section, but for now, let’s focus on answering the question, “What is a joint?” which is a more specific version of “What the heck am I holding in my hand?”
Joint Components
Figuring out what to call the smokable making its way around the circle can be stressful — especially when you’re not high (everything’s stressful when you’re not high, right?).
To help you in this regard, we’ve deconstructed the joint into its essential components. Identify those components and you’ll know exactly what you’re holding in your hand.
The components are:
- Interior
- Exterior
- Color
- Size
- Flavor
Let’s investigate them one by one.
Interior
A joint is marijuana — and only marijuana — wrapped in a rolling paper. That’s pretty much it. Not super difficult, was it? No need for an advanced degree here.
Exterior
Rolling papers can be composed of widely different materials, including the classic wood pulp to the more exotic rice to the “duh, why didn’t I think of it before” hemp.
Each type and brand of paper has different properties, including thickness, size, flavor, “rollability,” and burn length. Brand-names include Zig-Zag, Randy’s, Club, Bambu, Elements, Raw, and our personal favorite, NoGlu.
Color
Back in the day, joints were always white or light tan.
It wasn’t that we were somehow prejudiced against other colors (cannabis has always been a very inclusive culture). That’s just how the rolling papers were made.
Flash forward…uh, several decades (yes, we’re that old!), and most rolling papers — and by extension, our joints — are still white or light tan…for the most part.
Now, rolling papers come in all sorts of psychedelic colors, so your joint can be gold, gray, polka-dotted, or even clear (for that voyeur inside us all).
Size
Most rolling papers are about 3 inches long. When rolled, they typically resemble a cigarette.
That said, they can be thinner or thicker depending on the paper used and how much marijuana you pack inside.
Flavor
As for the final component, the flavor of a joint will come from the strain used to roll it rather than the paper.
This is because most rolling papers are flavorless. That allows you to experience the full taste of your Fruity Pebbles without the paper getting in the way.
But while most papers are indeed flavorless, you’ll likely see some flavored varieties sitting on your local dispensary shelves.
It’s entirely up to you, but we say why add any other flavors to a perfectly good ganja strain?
A Joint By Any Other Name…Isn’t A Joint
To paraphrase The Bard (that’s Shakespeare, boys and girls), a joint by any other name…isn’t a joint.
Though the cannabis community loves to create its own lexicon and refer to a single item, action, or comment by the same name, you should never — and we mean never — refer to one smokable by another’s name.
Calling a joint a blunt is like pointing at a Mazda Miata and calling it a Chevy Silverado. Yes, they both have four wheels and an engine, but that’s where the similarities end.
You can avoid embarrassment by always using the correct name for the item on which you’re about to toke.
And if you’re not sure, a general question like, “So what are we smoking today?” is an easy way to get your friends talking about the cannabis roll in their hand.
How To Smoke A Joint: Toker Tips
1) Gather Your Gear First
You don’t need a lot of gear to smoke a joint. But there are few things worse than settling in for a relaxing evening only to find you don’t have the essentials for a successful smoke.
Gather your gear — fire, ashtray, sploof, beverage, fave music or movie, plan for what to do while you’re high — before you blaze away so you’ll be relaxed and in the right frame of mind for the experience to come.
Toker Tip: Try storing your equipment in a bedazzled bag or box (OK, it doesn’t have to be bedazzled). That way, you don’t have to search all over the place for the gear you need.
2) Inhale Correctly
This may sound like strange advice since you’ve been breathing in and out for the extent of this article (and hopefully much longer), but you’d be surprised how difficult it can be to inhale correctly when learning how to smoke a joint.
If you’re not sure how to inhale correctly, try breathing through a straw for a minute or two to get the hang of it.
Toker Tip: If the smoke doesn’t make it to your lungs, you won’t get high.
3) Hold Your Breath For A Few Seconds
Once you’ve mastered the inhale, kick it up a notch and try holding the smoke in your lungs for longer than you normally do.
This gives your lungs extra time to absorb more of the cannabinoids and terpenes into your bloodstream. That can make for a quicker, more intense high.
And before you try holding your breath until you black out (don’t do that), even just keeping the smoke in for a count of one or two will heighten the experience.
Toker Tip: If you can, work up to a count of five-Mississippi to see what happens.
4) Don’t Overdo It
If the only running you’ve done is fleeing from the neighbor’s nasty dog, you’re probably not ready to run a 5K.
The same principle goes for how to smoke a joint.
If you’re flying high after a toke or two, there’s absolutely no way you’re going to make it through the whole thing.
Toker tip: Know your limits. Feel free to push them now and again, but you don’t have to go 10 feet over the line when an inch will do.
5) Prepare For A Lot Of Munchies!
To paraphrase Dwayne LeFontaine in Over The Hedge, “Prepare for a lot of munchies!” Sure, he’s no William Shakespeare, but we like him.
If you’re doing it right, you will feel hungry after smoking your joint. It’s the law…of nature.
Instead of harshing your buzz by leaving the house and trying to decide where and what to eat — you will make the wrong decision — prepare for the munchies ahead of time.
Toker Tip: Before you juke that joint, assemble your favorite food and drink or order your favorite grub for delivery. That way, you can enjoy both the high and the bliss of a large stuffed-crust pepperoni pizza without having to peel yourself off the couch.
Roll With The Best
When you’re learning how to smoke a joint, always roll with the best whenever possible.
And what exactly is the best? It’s fresh, high-quality, organically grown cannabis.
We can’t stress this enough, so we’ll say it again: Always use fresh, high-quality, organically grown cannabis whenever possible. Anything else and you run the risk of having a bad trip. And no one wants that.
For an upbeat, daytime high, try a sativa or sativa-dominant hybrid. For a relaxing, mellow-out-after-a-long-day high, try an indica or indica-dominant hybrid.
If you’re fortunate enough to live in a state where marijuana is legal, visit a local dispensary and ask the budtenders for their tippy-top-shelf strain.
Do that and you’ll be guaranteed to get the freshest strain to fit your mood. You’re welcome, America!
Originally Published by honestmarijuana.com
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