Understanding how to smoke a joint can make all the difference in creating the best experience. Whether you are about to smoke a joint for the first time or want to get the hang of it, a good experience involves less waste and a good high!
How To Smoke a Joint Like a Pro
To smoke a joint like a pro you will need to light it evenly, inhale it efficiently, and ash it properly
Your goal is to light it in a way that allows it to burn evenly. Start by holding the joint horizontally between two fingers. Expose the tip to the edge of the flame and roll it between your fingers 360 degrees. Rolling the joint as you gently expose it to the flame will ensure the entire tip is evenly lit all the way around.
Now you are ready to take a puff! Gently place the dry part of your lips on the paper or filter and slowly suck air through a small opening of your mouth. This gentle suction will draw the flame up the joint, directing the smoke into your mouth. Draw in a moderate amount of smoke from the joint into your mouth before you inhale into the lungs.
Once you inhale into the lungs, exhale.
Ashes will form after every draw you take. The amount of ash that is produced depends on the amount of weed you burned during your puff.
You don’t need to ash every puff, but you should ash the joint before passing it to the next person. Typically in a group, you practice ‘puff, puff, pass’, the common courtesy of taking two puffs of the joint, ashing it, and then passing it along. Ashes easily fall off when the joint is being bumped around while exchanging fingers. If you ash it properly before passing, you prevent making a mess and potentially burning holes on clothing or furniture.
Try not to ash your joint or blunt too aggressively though so you can prevent putting out the flame. Then you’ll have to search for your lighter again and who knows which friends’ pocket it’ll have ended up in. There are a few ways to do this:
– Bump the joint with your fingers gently. If there is enough ash it will fall off
– Lightly tap the joint on the edge of the ash tray to nudge the ashes off
– Gently roll the side/edge of the end of the joint on the side of the ashtray so the ashes fall off and down into the tray
Avoid smothering the flame with the ashes. Flatly dabbing the end of the joint upright on the ashtray will put the flame out.
Common Issues When Smoking a Joint
Coughing up a storm is never fun when smoking a blunt. An easy way to prevent this is to avoid inhaling directly into your lungs from the joint. Drawing the smoke into your mouth first allows the smoke to have a moment to cool and gives you greater control over how much smoke you actually inhale per puff.
Secondly, to prevent unnecessary coughing episodes, understand that there is no benefit or greater effects to holding in the smoke for any length of time. Spare your precious lungs knowing you aren’t wasting any bud by letting it go!
Uneven burning of the joint or blunt is the number one problem that we call a “canoe.” When one side burns faster than the other it takes on the appearance of a canoe hence the slang. The problem with uneven burning is that as one side opens up, it becomes exposed to more air and wind which causes it to burn faster. This means more of your weed is going up in smoke without your enjoyment and is wasted.
Canoeing can happen for a number of reasons. Lighting the joint evenly is a good practice to prevent this but the real key to solving the issue from the beginning is having evenly dispersed weed inside the joint.
Tips For Smoking a Better Joint
In general, the way you make your joints is the key to smoking better blunts. Your goal when crafting the perfect joint to reduce waste is to make it the right size for the event and be designed to burn slowly and evenly.
Your first consideration is dosage. If you are making a joint or blunt for a group roll a big one. If it’s just for yourself, roll a smaller joint or even cut the paper to be shorter if needed. Avoid putting your joint out halfway to save small amounts of unnecessary bud waste.
When rolling a joint for smoking you will want to use a nice dry bud. Dry bud burns easier and although you don’t want it to burn fast, you need it to burn easily.
Grind the bud finely so that you can have a fluffy medium to work with. A fluffy, non-clumpy grind makes for even dispersal of the bud inside the paper. Even dispersal means there are no air pockets. Avoiding air pockets is the key to avoiding canoes and uneven burning.
Lastly, roll it tightly. Snug together the fine grind to once again, reduce air in the joint. Less air space is what creates the slow burn. Be careful not to roll it too tightly. Rolling it overly tight can make it too hard for any air to pass through at all. You need air to be able to pass through and up the joint in order to inhale it.
Now you should be ready to smoke a joint like a pro! Maybe you can even help share some tips with your friends. Remember ‘puff, puff, pass!’
