Noah Rubin - How We Roll: The Art and Culture of Joints, Blunts, and Spliffs

Copyright 2022 by Bloodstone Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

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ISBN 978-1-7972-1293-7 (Hardcover)

SBN 978-1-7972-1643-0 (epub)

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The information provided in this book is for educational purposes only. Please check with your local, state, and federal laws regarding consumption, possession, and cultivation of cannabis.

Tobacco use can be harmful to your health. Stay informed and do whats right for you. Neither the author nor the publisher received any payment or other consideration for the descriptions of tobacco products in this book.

Next to making a proper omelette or wiping your own ass, rolling a joint is an essential life skill for any self-respecting member of society.

- Anthony Bourdain

It was the beginning of 2001, and I was living in southwest China near the border of Burma and Vietnam. The province is called Yunnan, and it was a needed change of scenery for me as I had just come from big city Beijing where I had lived for several months trying to learn Mandarin and desperately searching for any familiar fragment of the New York City lifestyle I had left behind, especially weed.

Besides traffic, pollution, and an occasional close call with a passerbys projectile wad of phlegm, the fact that weed was in very short supply in Beijing made me feel particularly far from home. When I did find a savory bit of cannabis it was always hash that had been trafficked in from the Xinjiang province near Afghanistan. To obtain this hash meant journeying to a hidden hutong alleyway that was also a de facto shooting gallery for many of the citys heroin users. Yunnan welcomed me with clean air and abundant natural beauty, but even more important was the discovery that I might be able to get my hands on some actual bud without an alleyway excursion.

How much should I try to get? my friend asked me excitedly after reporting that he had been approached by a smiling elderly farmer woman on the street holding a picture of plump nugs. As much as you can, I guess. I responded with excitement, already visualizing the nostalgic and familiar joint I would roll after months of smoking nothing but pseudosatisfying Xinjiang hash spliffs.

Little did I know what my response would summon because later that day when I caught up with my friend, he held a huge bag in his hands that looked a lot more like something from my late-fall childhood leaf-raking sessions in New England than the little baggies of weed I was used to buying in New York. Whats in there? I naively asked. Its the stuff, he replied. I couldnt believe my eyes. I had never seen so much weed in my life.

We immediately brought the sack back to our room and poured out the contents on a table. The quality was far from anything you could call high grade, but for whatever it may have lacked in potency it more than made up for in volume. Tackling this mountain of nugs would be no small task, so we enrolled a few friends who gladly joined us around the table as we began rolling joints. We couldnt roll fast enough, and as we lit up our joints, wed take a few contemplative puffs and pass to the left. Our teamwork meant that as soon as we offered our joint to the person next to us, we were already receiving another joint through a halo of smoke from our right. The room quickly filled with a cloud of cannabis and as we approached an hour of nonstop rotation, our weedy cyclone summoned dreams of dumplings, another itch that would soon need to be scratched.

This book is about rolling joints, blunts, and spliffs, but it is also about the many unexpected possibilities that can emerge from this seemingly simple act. Writing and researching classic elevated rolls like the cross, the tulip, and the braid, led me to friends in the Caribbean who introduced me to the Trinidadian Roll Ona spliff unlike anything I had ever encountered. Similarly, as I prepared my description of numerous blunt rolling techniques, from classic cigar wraps to Fronto Leaf, I also wanted to explore rose petals as an alternative worthy of sharing. When the best method to put together this romantic wrap was kindly shared with me, it turned out to be much easier than I expected.

I also sought out a more global perspective from contacts in Egypt, Mexico, Italy, and the UK, and each of their stories was a window into how our different traditions are rooted in the same spirit. Then I reached out to folks like Wiz Khalifa, Tommy Chong, Dawn Richard, Wayne Coyne, and Laganja Estranja to interview them for the book. It came as no surprise that their personal rolling stories revealed how much there is to be uncovered when we take a little extra time to look beneath the surface. Each of these conversations collectively brought me back to my joint-infused journey in China at the dawn of the millennium and reminded me again of how connection, exploration, and lightheartedness are the most essential ingredients in whatever or wherever you roll. So, if you havent already, twist one up, take a moment to reflect, and get ready for this trip!

What Does My Rolling Style Say About Me?

Before you roll, make sure you are properly set up. You will need a good, stable surface, a rolling tray, and a grinder or a pair of scissors. If youre rolling blunts and dont want to crack them by hand, make sure to have a knife or something else sharp to cut them open. In addition, its always good to have a tamping tool of some kind. A pencil or pen works and even a chopstick can be helpful. Now, with your army of tools and accessories perfectly parlayed, good luck finding your rolling papers.

Youll need a tray to do your magic. Take your pick from the following:

Make sure your weed is ground up before you roll up. If youre feeling too broke to buy a proper grinder, consider these options: