Joint vs. blunt vs. spliff: what's the difference?

What is a joint?

A joint is ground cannabis rolled in a thin rolling paper, like a hand-rolled cigarette with no tobacco. The paper is usually made from rice, hemp, or wood pulp. Many joints have a small rolled-card tip at the mouth end, called a crutch or filter. It keeps the end from going soggy and stops bits from falling into your mouth.

Joints are small. One study of over 10,000 US cannabis purchases, reported by people interviewed after an arrest from 2000 to 2010, put the average joint at about a third of a gram. Many people say they roll bigger, from half a gram to a gram.

A pre-roll is a joint that was rolled by a machine or by staff and sold ready to light. For a beginner it is the easiest option: no rolling, and a label that tells you what's inside. Pre-rolls come in sizes, often half a gram or a full gram, so check the weight. Skip any marked "infused" for now. They have extra concentrate added and are much stronger.

What is a blunt?

A blunt is cannabis rolled in a tobacco leaf wrap. The classic way to make one is to split a cheap cigar or cigarillo, dump out the tobacco filler, and refill the leaf wrapper with cannabis. The name comes from Phillies Blunt, a cigar brand. "Woods" (a Backwoods blunt) and "Dutchies" are blunts rolled in other cigar brands.

Here is the part many people miss: the wrap itself is tobacco, so a blunt contains nicotine even with all the filler removed. Researchers who tested the wrappers of five cigars commonly used for blunts found 1.2 to 6.0 milligrams of nicotine per wrapper. A cigarette holds about 10 to 15 milligrams. So a blunt wrap has less, but researchers call it "not trivial." Nobody has measured how much of it you actually breathe in.

Blunts are usually bigger than joints. A blunt rolled from a small cigar (a cigarillo) often holds about a gram of cannabis, sometimes more. The thick leaf burns slower, so a blunt lasts longer and is usually shared.

Tobacco-free "blunt wraps" made from hemp or palm leaf exist. They are sold as nicotine-free. If avoiding nicotine matters to you, read the package, because a brown wrap doesn't tell you which kind it is.

What is a spliff, and what does spliff mean?

A spliff is cannabis and tobacco mixed together and rolled in regular rolling paper. From the outside it looks like a joint. Inside, part of the mix is tobacco, anywhere from a pinch to more than half.

The word comes from Jamaica. In the UK and much of Europe, joints are usually rolled with tobacco. So in the UK, "spliff" often just means a joint. In the US a spliff specifically means the tobacco mix, and a joint means cannabis only. If someone offers you a spliff, it's fair to ask what's in it.

Blunt vs. joint vs. spliff, side by side

How to tell what you've been handed: a brown leaf wrap means a blunt, or a tobacco-free hemp wrap that looks the same. White or thin paper means a joint or a spliff. If it smells like cigarettes, or you can see brown shreds of tobacco at the end, it's a spliff. When in doubt, ask.

Which is better for a beginner, a joint or a blunt?

A small joint or a pre-roll. Three reasons:

• No nicotine. You feel the cannabis and nothing else, so you learn what it does to you.
• Small, and you don't have to finish it. Many beginners take one small puff, put it out, and wait 15 to 30 minutes before deciding on another. Full effects can take up to 30 minutes. Start low, go slow.
• Easy to pass. A joint often goes out when you set it down, and you can relight it later. If someone hands you a joint or a blunt, you can take one small puff and pass it, or just pass it.

Blunts are a group thing. They hold more cannabis than a typical joint, they last longer, and the wrap adds nicotine on top of the high. That makes it easy to take more puffs than you planned and end up dizzy, sick, or anxious. If that happens, the too high page walks you through it. If you're worried about someone, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222. For chest pain or trouble breathing, call 911.

Does a blunt get you higher than a joint?

Not because of the wrap. It's the same plant inside. A blunt feels stronger for three reasons:

• There's more in it. A blunt usually holds more cannabis than a joint, often about one and a half to three joints' worth.
• Nicotine. The wrap adds nicotine. If you don't use tobacco, you're feeling two drugs at once, which can feel "stronger."
• It lasts longer. A slow-burning blunt going around a group means more turns, and the puffs add up.

A spliff is different. Part of it is tobacco, so it holds less cannabis than a joint the same size. It can still be hard to judge, because the nicotine and the high arrive together.

How many joints equal a blunt?

There's no fixed number, because both come in any size. In one study, people said they put about 50% more cannabis in a blunt than in a joint: about 1 gram versus two-thirds of a gram. Next to a small joint of about a third of a gram, a 1-gram blunt is about three joints' worth. You'll see "a blunt is six joints" online. That is only true of a very big blunt.

Is a blunt bad for you?

Smoking cannabis in any form can harm your lungs, including a plain joint. Blunts and spliffs add tobacco to that. Cigar smoke contains the same toxic and cancer-causing chemicals as cigarette smoke, and researchers call the nicotine in a blunt wrap "not trivial." Health researchers say using cannabis and tobacco together adds up the harms of both, and may make them worse. People who prefer blunts also have a harder time quitting cannabis.

If you want to avoid smoke altogether, edibles and vapes are the usual alternatives. Each has its own rules, especially timing, so read those pages first.

Words you'll hear

• Pre-roll: a joint sold ready to smoke.
• Crutch, filter, tip: the rolled card at the mouth end of a joint.
• Woods, Dutchie: blunts named after the cigar brand used for the wrap.
• Hemp wrap, palm wrap: tobacco-free wraps that roll like a blunt.
• Grabba: coarse tobacco leaf mixed into a spliff, a word from Jamaica and Caribbean communities.
• Roach: in the US, the last bit of a joint, too short to hold. In the UK, it means the filter tip.

Common questions