Out of papers? Wanna get high, but can’t get to a store? Oh well, you’ll have to sit this one out.
Or will you?
There are plenty of alternatives to joints when it comes to smoking pot – pipes, bongs, one-hitters, vaporizers, dab rigs, and a whole lot more. That’s fine if you have any of those tools to hand, but what if you don’t? You don't have to go without if you’re out of papers and need a smoke. Seedsman’s got other ideas.
Make a ‘Secret Agent’ joint
If you’ve never heard of a secret agent, it’s an ingenious little hack you can do as long as you have a regular cigarette and cannabis. Initially invented to allow covert smokers a public puff, a secret agent also makes a handy way of getting blazed if you run out of papers. The simplicity of the secret agent is as impressive as the ingenuity behind it, because anyone can make one.
You’ll need the following:
- A cigarette
- Ground cannabis flower
- A sharp instrument or tweezers
- Something to use as a filter
The trick is to be gentle and don’t rush it, lest ye wrinkle the cigarette casing. Start by rolling the cigarette between your fingers over a clean, dry surface, a plate, a piece of kitchen roll, or something that will catch the loose tobacco as it falls from the cigarette. Start near the open end of the cigarette and roll the cigarette between your thumb and forefinger until the tobacco begins falling out.
Gradually work your way back toward the filter tip of the cigarette until you’ve emptied all the tobacco – you'll need to be patient - and remember, the aim of the game is to keep the cigarette casing as much of a neat tube as possible. You’re going to fill it up, see....
You should be left with a hollow cigarette if this has gone well. If you mix your cannabis with tobacco, keep the tobacco. Otherwise, discard the tobacco and get your grinder.
If you have tweezers or something with a pointed end nearby, you can either remove the filter tip and add a joint filter or drill through it (again, watch your fingers) and place a thin filter in the hole.
Now the fun begins!
Carefully fill the hollow cigarette with ground-up cannabis flower – or tobacco and weed if that’s your bag. Fill it up nice and tight, and tamp it in with a Q-Tip, matchstick, or whatever you have handy that fits at the end of the cigarette. You want it nice and tight but not so tight you can’t get a decent puff. Be careful you don’t burst the cigarette. Voila! You have a secret agent joint, and you’re in business.
Smoke weed with a pipe
This is only a viable alternative if you have a pipe handy or are resourceful enough to MacGuyver one out of whatever (clean, please) objects you have to hand. Smoking weed with a pipe is a quick and easy deal. Load your ground-up flower into the bowl, set it ablaze, and puff away like Sherlock Holmes (well – maybe more like Couch-lock Holmes).
Smoke weed with an apple
We all enjoy a nice fruity cannabis strain, but this is ridiculous. It’s not really, though – you can legitimately fashion an impromptu smoking device from an apple. It's not particularly hard, but you'll benefit from a steady hand.
If you have:
- A knife or a pen
- Some tinfoil
You're in business.
If your apple has a stem, twist it off and remove it entirely. Then, take your ballpoint pen, open it up and remove the inner workings – any springs, nibs, the little straw with the ink in it – set them aside. You want to work with only a hollow tube. Take this hollow tube and push through the top of the apple, about halfway in. Withdraw the pen tube, and get rid of any excess apple.
Now take the hollow pen tube and push it into the side of the apple, aiming to line up with the bottom of the tunnel you just created at the top of the apple, about halfway down. Push it straight through and out the other side of the apple. You now have a mouthpiece and a carb. Have a look for any apple bits and blow or poke them out of there.
All that’s left to do is pack some weed into the hole at the top, light it like any other pipe, and get your smoke on.
You’re not restricted to apples, either. Loads of fruit and vegetables can be used to make an impromptu pipe. Probably best to avoid tomatoes, though.
Hot knife technique
The classic hot knife trick evokes images of a misspent but much-enjoyed youth. While this technique is a flashback to teenage years for some, the method itself dates back centuries. It may be incredibly basic, but it’s arguably the easiest way to get high without proper equipment, and it’s also extremely effective. It’s easiest to smoke hash using hot knives, but some people use cannabis flower.
You'll need the following:
- Two knives of metallic construction
- A heating element; a stove is the traditional method, but you could feasibly do this using a half-decent lighter.
For ease, we’ll recommend a stove. Fire up the stove to medium heat, and place the blades of your knives on the heating element. Give them a minute to absorb the heat, and very carefully put a bud or a piece of hash on the blade of one knife. Carefully (use protection for your hands if you can) lift the other knife and press the hot blade on top of your bud or your hash. Now all you do is squeeze the lot together, and when it emits smoke, start inhaling. Note: It will begin to give off smoke pretty much immediately.
Your good friends at Seedsman would respectfully ask you to take the utmost care not to burn your hands or get too close to the knives and burn your lovely face.
Smoke weed using a plastic lung
If you’ve never heard of a lung, it’s essentially just a DIY bong. They’re easy to make, and rest assured; you will get good and high using this method.
To fashion a lung, you will require the following equipment:
- One plastic bottle (1L, 2L, 4L – it’s all good)
- Scissors or a sharp knife (think bread knife)
- Tinfoil/Aluminum Foil
- Tape
- A plastic bag
- The wherewithal to craft a lung
Next, get to work making your lung, step by step:
- Begin by cutting your bottle in half, and discard the bottom half
- Attach the plastic bag to the bottom of the top half of the bottle
- Place a small piece of tinfoil over the mouth of the bottle top
- Poke at least three holes in the foil
- Plop a small amount of ground flower on top of the foil
Then all you need to do is light the weed, pull on the bag and let it fill up with smoke. Lift the foil off, inhale the smoke, and enjoy.
Use a corn husk
Corn husks have the advantage of providing a nice, smooth inhale. They’re all-natural, and when they dry out, they’re perfectly malleable, allowing you to roll them into a smokeable unit quite happily. Better yet, they burn pretty evenly due to their fibrous nature. Admittedly, it’s not something everyone has lying around the house, but it’s certainly a viable option if you do.
To use a corn husk instead of a rolling paper, all you need to do is ensure it’s dried out. Then put it to use as you would a standard rolling paper, filling it with cannabis and rolling it into a joint-like shape. Light it, smoke it, love it.
Alternative types of paper
Okay, admittedly, we’re entering proper desperation territory here, but let’s face it – we’ve probably all been there at some point, even if it was back in college. What can you use instead of rolling papers to build a joint?
Not much, unfortunately. We've heard of people ripping a page out of the telephone book, Yellow Pages, or something similar to use as a roll-up and we would absolutely not recommend this, as printer's ink is toxic and not something you want to ingest. Those pages are admittedly of a similar consistency to good ol’ rolling papers and will probably even seal shut with saliva alone. The same cannot be said of newspaper, toilet paper or a leaf from your A4 pad. The good thing is, as we’ve shown, there are plenty of ways you can keep smoking, even without rolling papers.
