In Defense of the Joint:rasta:

There are as many ways to smoke herb as there are people that smoke it. And each one of us has his, or her, own preference. Some prefer one hit pipes, some a bong or water pipe. Others have a favorite Chilum, or antler or briar. Some use mirchum, others have a carved stone. Each person has their own reason and logic for the choice they have made.
And then there is the joint. Like other implements, joints come in as many flavors and types as the people that smoke them. There are plain papers, there are flavored papers, there are white or yellow. Some papers are ā??slow burningā? others are ā??all naturalā?. Some papers as sized to make a cigarette sized smoke others are for larger smokes. There are pre glued tubes and cones, there are all manner of ways to hold herb to be smoked.
Over the past thirty five years I have used virtually every manner of smoking process. I have used the simple ( ā??hot knifingā?; heat a butter knife until itā??s red hot then press it into a small pile of herb on a non flammable surface), to a ā??PROTO Pipeā? or hookas, water pipes and vaporizers. My personal preference has drifted back to the simple joint.
I prefer joints because itā??s all there in one place. Nothing to add, no separate stash, nothing to drop or break. No screen to wear out. I can keep a joint and one kitchen match in a waterproof container and when the time is right everything is there. The wind wonā??t whip the weed out of my bowl. If I drop it, it wonā??t break. If I am approached by law enforcement itā??s eatable; all in all itā??s the simplest and most elegant method of obtaining my buzz.
There are many choices of rolling papers and as I get older and more aware of my health I have become much more picky about what goes into my body. When I was younger I tried the flavored papers. They left an interesting flavor on the lips but did nasty things to the flavor of the herb. I used slow burning papers (more sanitary than licking the whole thing) but didnā??t like how they accomplished the process. Iā??ve used the old stand by, Zig Zagā??s or the Bugle papers that came in a bag of tobacco. But as the years passed and I read more and more about how different chemicals affect the human body in the long term; I chose to seek out a less hazardous wrap.
After extensive testing I settled on unbleached rice papers; plain, clean burning. As I read more about the processes and chemicals used in glues I settled on glueless, pure rice, unbleached, standard sized papers. Now it must be understood I am not a spokesman for any company, but as my researches continued I found a brand called Club made the cleanest and least dangerous papers for my joints. Now when I smoke that is the paper of choice for me.
I understand the other views; my sons have a wonderful collection of glass pipes and they insist they are superior. And I agree, they do not impart a flavor, they do not corrode and send deadly fumes deep into the lungs like some metals. But they are so damn fragile and you still need to put a metal screen in them. Most screens are cheap brass and the reason you have to replace them is because they corrode in the extreme temperatures and the presence of oxygen, so there is still a minor amount of metallic poison being deposited in your lungs. Screens are the problem with many pipes, stone and ceramic. While the base material may not react to the heat and oxygen the screens always do. Some screens can be found that are high temperature and non reacting but access to such material is very limited for the average person.
Yes, vaporizers have gotten past most of that, but the heating elements are still subject to at least a small amount of corrosion and while it is less than the corrosion of a screen it is still present and potentially a contaminant to the lungs. While the amounts in question may be minuscule, over a lifetime like mine of smoking (thirty five years and at least twenty more to go) the eventual build up may have unintended consequences.
Water pipes and bongs I hear the crowd call. Well yes, the water does filter out many of the heavier tars and pollutants. But, unfortunately, THC is water soluble and some of your high is left in that nasty mung water as you draw the smoke through. Using alcohol (drinking not rubbing) in a bong is no better, itā??s actually worse as the THC is even more soluble in ethanol. Rubbing alcohol can be used to clean pipes but should never be ingested as it is poisonous and if you are lucky it will blind you and if you are not it will kill you. Donā??t even think about methanol or other wood alcoholā??s, equally fatal. Good cleaning compounds, but fatal to the human body.
Well wait, I hear people say, what about the waste as the joint burns and you are passing it around? When you are really stoned; and have been for thirty five years, that sort of thing gets looked at. I have taken measurements of joints as they burn and found that the actual amount of ā??lossā? while passing is one to three percent of the overall volume of the cylinder. By weight with a one gram joint (a pretty good sized fatty by anyoneā??s standards) the ā??lossā? is between one and three one hundredths of a gram. Not really enough to get high from and honestly not enough to register on a THC test.
Joints go out when you arenā??t hitting them. So when you are stoned enough thereā??s no danger of setting fire to the couch or the floor. The back half of a joints acts as a filter for the front half and the back half burns measurably slower as the collected tars and resins retard the burning speed of the herb. If you are really concerned about the health aspects of the tars and resins you can use a cigarette filter holder to collect the tars and resins in a filter media before it gets to your lungs. Research has shown that cannabis tars and resins do not contain the deadly nicotine that kills your lung cilia and is water soluble. That means if you do stop smoking for a while ( three to six months) the tars and resins in your lungs will dissolve and be expelled naturally.
So if you find yourself smoking with me, break out the ungummed Clubā??s and roll a nice one.

How to Roll a Joint (Gumless)
Start by cleaning the herb thoroughly. Remove all extraneous matter, no stems, no seeds. Break the weed up into a consistent sized material. Larger chunks burn slower and will cause a joint to run, finer dust like material will burn slower as well and also cause the joint to run. The more consistent the size of the material the more consistent the rate of burn. Take your rolling paper and fold in along the quarter line lengthwise, making a trough between the quarter line and the mid line fold. Into this trough place enough weed to fill the trough to overflowing. Holding the paper on one end with a finger ( index) in the trough use your other finger to separate the herb into two piles, with a gap to the bottom in the middle. Now using your thumb and three fingers on each end start at the piles and roll toward the center. Your thumbs should tuck the small part under the long part and your fingers can roll back towards the ends. When less than one eighth of the long edge is still un rolled lick along that edge, moistening both the edge and the surface it will touch. Gently bring the two surfaces together and allow them to dry. Handled carefully this bond will hold for time required to finish the joint. If you are having trouble passing these joints put a clip on them and hold them by the clip.
Like learning to play the piano practice make perfect and unlike the piano the practice here is a lot of fun. So get out there and practice, practice, practice!!


Rolling a spliff
I encountered spliffs in the Caribbean in the early 80ā??s. Take a piece of corn husk, the sweeter the better. Allow it to dry thoroughly. Take a good quantity of herb, several grams at least, and prepare it as if you were rolling several joints. No stems, equal sized pieces. Cut or shred the weed to bring it to a uniform consistency. Trim the corn husk to about the proportions of a rolling paper, only two to three times standard size. Using another husk pull several fibers off one end and keep them handy. After filling the husk with enough weed to comfortably roll produce the cylinder and hold it with one hand. Now this gets a bit tricky. Take one of the fibers you tore off another husk and wrap it around the cylinder you just rolled. Using your free hand and teeth ( or a friend if oneā??s available) tie the fiber in a square knot ( any knot will do but the square knot puts less strain on the fiber; and itā??s a use for that Boy Scout Knot Course) around the middle of the cylinder. Prepare three or four more strands and fit them to the cylinder in equal measures from end to end. When you get done you have a cylinder of corn husk, stuffed with weed. Pack the ends with a kitchen match or similar object and then.....wait for it....apply the flame to one end. While inhaling of course. Totally organic, mostly non toxic and because you stuffed it with three grams of kind bud, really really stoning. Easy to pass because itā??s large and well made it should burn for at least ten to fifteen minutes. More than long enough to go around the room once and make people stare! My sons and I smoke one of these when our garden ripens and it gives us something to look forward to when we harvest our corn.

You may also enjoy The Tenth Generation Joint, and other threads I have posted on this subject.

Doctor G