The Art of Rolling a Joint

Twisting up a Bone is More Important Than You Think

Are you the one in your group who always says, “OMG I roll terrible, you do it!” Or do you welcome the opportunity to twist one up when some asks, “Who can roll?” Whichever category you fall into, you understand that it’s sometimes socially important to be able to roll a joint.

I was taught to roll a joint when I was in college. I was interning at a local rock and roll radio station as a way to get credit for school and to learn the radio business from the inside. It was a great gig and I learned a lot. I learned how to type, I learned how to talk all the way to the post, and I learned how to roll a joint.

I also learned that lots of people in the radio business smoke pot. Shocker, I know. So in order to fit in and not just be the intern to go get coffee for everyone, I learned how to roll and suddenly instead of getting coffee, I was asked all the time, “Hey Todd can you go roll us a joint? We have a break coming up.”

My friend and late night DJ, Joe St. Peter taught me how. It was just one of many things Joe taught me. He taught me about segues, rock history, how to record a spot onto a cart. But I think it was the joint rolling skills he had that impressed me the most. He could literally roll a joint with one hand while doing the news, cueing up his carts and he would be done before the end of the commercial break.

And not just done, but done with the perfectly rolled joint that looked just like a machine rolled cigarette. I’m not sure how he did it so perfectly but he always said it was the fact he used his entire finger when rolling and not just the pads of his thumbs. I lost track of Joe, but I’ve always remembered what he said, “Todd, rolling a joint is an art, not just a thing you do.”

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1. First get yourself some cone rolling papers.
2. Grind up your hemp or cannabis flower.
3. Take the Cone out of the wrapper and hold it upright with the filter on the bottom.
4. Pour the ground flower into the large part of the cone.
5. Fill it with enough flower, leaving just enough to twist the top shut.
6. Then simply twist the top tightly into a tiny wick like top.
7. Light it and smoke.

The Classic – The old fashioned way of rolling a joint with a regular sized paper and your fingers is really the best way to learn because you can’t always find rolling machines and/or cone papers. So now that you know how to do it with a few tools, now you need to learn how to do it on your own with just your fingers. You can do it with or without a filter, but we suggest without a filter until you get the hang of it.

1. Grind up your hemp or cannabis flower.
2. First grab your regular sized rolling holding the glue on top facing you.
3. Fold a crease into your paper from the bottom to the crease that is already in the paper (about a quarter of the paper folded into the half).
4. Hold your folded paper between your index finger and thumb using your middle finger as support
5. Pour in your ground flower evenly into the crease.
6. Use your index finger on your other hand to flatten out any bumps or unevenness.
7. Take the paper making sure you don’t spill any flower so you have it in both hands now using both forefingers and thumbs on either side of the joint using your middle fingers as support.
8. Using the pads of your thumbs, roll the paper up evenly and tucking the edge of the paper into the roll.
9. Use your thumbs to smooth it out and then lick the gummed edge and continue the roll. 
10. Some people like to twist the ends like a cone joint. One side to light and the other side to bite or cut off the twisty to smoke from (when you use a filter you won’t need to do that last part).
11. Then reward yourself and light it and smoke!

Once you have mastered the art of rolling a joint with these techniques, you can move on to do some different things like creating some joint art. There’s a shotgun joint, a cross joint, a triple braid joint, a tulip joint, a windmill joint and many others. Maybe you can come up with one on your own. 

Again, being able to roll a joint will make you very popular at parties and amongst your friends and you’ll always be invited to the sesh. About five years ago I was at a Christmas Eve party in Beverly Hills. It was a who’s who of Hollywood at the party, and the reason I was invited by the host was because he was an investor in the cannabis company I was working at, at the time.

Well, Todd McCormick was there. In case you don’t know, Todd is famous for being the first medical marijuana arrest in California since the passage of Proposition 215. He has been a medical marijuana patient since he was 9 years old in his fight against a rare disease called Histiocytosis X and attributes cannabis with saving his life. McCormick has been an activist, and researcher for cannabis as well as collaborating with Jack Herer on a new edition of his ground-breaking book The Emperor Wears No Clothes.

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And if that wasn’t enough, his 1998 book; “How to Grow Medicinal Marijuana” is one of the most downloaded books about growing cannabis on the Internet. Anyway, he showed up with a giant bag of weed and a case of rolling papers. He was literally the most popular guy there. Everyone wanted to sit near him and everybody wanted a joint! Soon the party was filled with smoke as everyone got one or two of Todd’s joints. His joints were perfectly round like my old friend Joe St. Peter and as I sat and smoked one, it reminded me of the old days at the radio station. 

So learn how to roll… You’ll thank me later.