What’s a spliff?
If you’re new to the cannabis scene, there is a good chance you’ve heard of what a blunt or joint is — yet, there is also a good chance you’ve never heard of a spliff before. While all of them contain marijuana, there are some distinctive that separate them all.
That’s where we come in. Today, you’ll learn what a spliff is, how it got its name, the differences between a spliff and a joint, and the pros and cons of using them to smoke weed.
Let’s begin!
What is a Spliff?
The spliff closely resembles its more famous cousin, the joint. Both have the same long, cigarette appearance, but spliffs come with an extra twist: it contains a blend of tobacco and cannabis.
If you’re familiar with what a blunt is (a marijuana cigarette wrapped in a rolling paper made of tobacco leaves), think of the spliff as a blunt and joint hybrid. Spliff contains more tobacco than a blunt and offers its smokers an energetic tobacco buzz, including pleasurable and energetic sensations. Besides, spliff allows its users to modify the tobacco to cannabis ratio to their exact preference.
While spliffs aren’t as popular in Canada as they are in Europe, they’re slowly but surely catching on here.
The “spliff” meaning has its roots in West India, but there is a good possibility it came from Jamaica. That said, in Jamaican culture, “spliff” refers to a regular joint without tobacco, making it impossible to determine where the nomenclature came from.
Confused by the spliff, joint and blunt terminology? They’re three fundamentally different things.
Spliffs and joints both utilize joint or cigarette rolling papers, while a blunt uses a tobacco leaf as the rolling paper to hold the blunt’s contents inside. However, a spliff contains tobacco in addition to cannabis inside, while joint and blunt are not. Lastly, blunt consists of ground cannabis wrapped up in tobacco paper instead of a regular rolling paper.
Spliff vs Joint – What’s The Difference?
There are several similarities and differences between the spliff and a good old joint. They are similar in size, shape, are hand-rolled, portable, and take about the same skill of hand and expertise to pull off successfully.
Their primary differences lie in the fact that spliffs contain tobacco, whereas joints do not, making the spliffs longer-lasting than joints. This is because tobacco burns slower and more evenly than weed, so if you’re smoking a spliff, you’ll unlikely experience the dreaded “canoe effect” that accompanies joint and blunt smoking.
You’ll also experience a boost of adrenaline and blood sugar, which will leave you more energized than smoking a joint would. The added tobacco may also help mask the skunky weed smell when smoking outdoors or when you’re trying to be covert.
Keep in mind that spliffs don’t contain as much marijuana as joints do, so if you want to get super stoned, maybe you should opt for a joint instead. There are known cancer risks associated with consuming tobacco products that don’t apply to cannabis.
Yes, weed does release carcinogens when you smoke it. Still, when tobacco gets combusted — hundreds of cancer-causing toxins release — not to mention you’re also faced with the risk of becoming addicted.
Why Should You Try a Spliff?
Rolling tobacco is much easier than rolling cannabis. This is because the strain and texture differences, the conditions in which it’s stored, how old it is, and how well weed is ground or broken up make marijuana harder to roll than tobacco.
The good news is that if your weed is too sticky, the tobacco tames it down. And if it’s too dry, it adds some moisture and pliability. As we mentioned earlier, spliffs also smoke better than joints because they burn more uniformly than marijuana does.
And did you know it also makes your weed stash last longer? Think about it: if you cut your marijuana use in half and replace it with tobacco, you naturally consume less.
Another benefit of smoking a spliff is that it is more discreet than a joint. Smoking weed outside in public isn’t as socially acceptable as smoking cigarettes are. Luckily, spliffs mask the smell and therefore eliminate suspicion or negative association when smoking. Since they’re less potent, you won’t get as high or paranoid as you might get if it was 100 percent marijuana.
Reasons to Avoid Smoking a Tobacco Joint
The biggest drawback and most controversial part of smoking spliffs are that they use tobacco.
Tobacco is a known carcinogen with high cancer risks. Smoking tobacco is dangerous for your health since it increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, mouth and gum disease, cancer and even death. Half of all Americans, or about 480,000, die from tobacco use; that’s more than car accidents, alcohol, illegal drugs, guns, or HIV combined.
Smoking tobacco is also responsible for roughly 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 80 percent of all fatal lung cancer diagnoses.
Keeping this in mind, we also have to remember when you smoke a spliff, you’re not just smoking tobacco — you’re also smoking cannabis. While smoking cannabis doesn’t come with the same risk factors as tobacco does, it does increase heart rate and can become habit-forming.
The tobacco and marijuana contained in them pose health risks individually, so we can only imagine how combining them could be unsafe or outright dangerous.
Vaping vs Smoking: Is Vaping Healthier?
Smoke is still smoke. It irritates your throat, stimulates coughing and causes heart diseases and strokes.
However, there are some studies indicating that vaping your weed is less harmful than smoking your spliff and joints.
A study from 2013 indicated that vaping marijuana reduced the harmful carbon monoxide produced from tobacco smoking. Another study has also revealed that vaping weed involves a lower number of chemicals than smoking does.
If you want to quit smoking and look for something more healthy and beneficial, try vaping. Vaping your cannabis means that you get a stronger high, better flavor and smell (especially if you don’t like the pungent odor of tobacco) and, most importantly, a potentially beneficial harm reduction method of medicating your weed.
Use Pyro vape instead of spliffs and joints and experience the benefits for yourself. While Pyro vapes are not exactly similar to your regular spliff, they are still excellent for getting high and vaping your cannabis instead of smoking it.
If you are going on a trip with your friends and want to medicate discreetly, Pyro vapes are even better than spliff in terms of covering the odor of marijuana. Want your friends to smell mango or pineapple? No problem, we’ve got your cover.
Each ceramic cartridge comes with 500ml of THC Distillate, is the perfect alternative to smoking cannabis spliff, while also being easy to use and convenient. Not only that, but they also have no traces of cotton, heavy metal, or glue to enhance your vaping experience. Get your buzz in a matter of seconds and enjoy!
Should You Try a Spliff?
As with anything, smoking spliffs come with both its positives and negatives that need to be balanced out by doing your own research and making informed decisions for your personal needs.
If you’re already a cigarette or tobacco user, it makes sense to add some of the devil’s lettuce in to give you a nice, balanced high. However, if you only smoke cannabis, we don’t recommend taking up tobacco just to have the experience of smoking a spliff. The health and addiction risks associated with tobacco use just isn’t worth it, in our humble opinion.
Better use vaporizers instead. They are healthier than smoking your cannabis and are less dangerous than smoking spliffs, joints and blunts.
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