Joint is a slang term for a cigarette rolled using cannabis. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium among industrialized countries, however brown paper, cigarettes with the tobacco removed, and newspaper are commonly used in developing countries.[1] Modern papers are now made from a wide variety of materials including rice, hemp, and flax.[2]
A joint can range in size,[3] typically containing between 250–750 mg net weight of cannabis and/or fillers.[4]
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Joints consist of dried cannabis rolled inside a cylinder by hand or by a rolling machine. When smoked to the very bottom of the joint, it is often difficult to hold and is called a roach. The roach will often have an appreciable amount of THC from the accumulated resin. The roach can be held with finger nails, roach clips, roach pins, tweezers, or can be smoked using a bowl. Joints are often passed around a group circularly, and hoarding the joint (otherwise known as "grannying" or "bogarting ") is considered a serious breach of protocol.[5]
Though all joints by convention contain cannabis,[6] regional differences include the following:
The word joint ultimately originated from French, where it is an adjective meaning "joined" (past participle of the verb joindre), derived in turn from Latin iunctus, past participle of iugare ("join"/"bind"/"yoke").
By 1821, "joint" had become an Anglo-Irish term for an annexe, or a side-room "joined" to a main room. By 1877, this had developed into U.S. slang for a (usually unsavory) "place, building, establishment," especially referring to an opium den. By 1935, "joint" was being used to refer to the hypodermic needles used to inject heroin and other drugs at such establishments; this may have been influenced by the secondary meaning of "joint" in the sense of something done "in common" or shared. Its first usage in the sense of "marijuana cigarette" is dated to 1938.[8]
There are many slang terms mostly synonymous with the word joint,[9] e.g. "fatty", which is used to describe a joint that contains an unusually large quantity of marijuana.[10]
The term spliff is a West Indian word of Jamaican English origin,[11] but has spread to several western countries, particularly Canada, the United States, and many countries in Europe. Its precise etymology is unknown, but it is attested as early as 1936. While Jamaican spliffs are generally conical in shape, those elsewhere tend to be cylindrical and of varying lengths. "Spliff" can also refer to various styles of cigarette rolled with a mixture of hashish and tobacco.[7]
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