Home Growers Corner
Cannabis Consumption:
Smoking, Dabbing, & Eating
Smoking Flower, Part 1:
Rolling up
by Gerry Donovan, contributing writer
Now that you’ ve grown your first harvest and I’ ve taught you how to make edibles and hash, you must figure out what to do with it. Maybe cannabis is new to you, and you are wondering about the different ways you can now enjoy your buds. This will be a mini-series on cannabis consumption.
We will cover the three main aspects of consuming cannabis: smoking, dabbing, and eating. The three most common forms of cannabis are pure flower, cannabis concentrates, and cannabis edibles. Let’ s talk about the most common ways and methods for you to enjoy these varied cannabis products: smoking cannabis in its flower form, dabbing— smoking cannabis in its concentrated forms, and edibles –– eating and drinking cannabis food products.
Let’ s Talk Smoking Flower
If you don’ t trust yourself to hand-roll a joint, grab some pre-formed cones, or get a joint roller. It is a little contraption that you load with flower, insert a paper, twist, and out comes a nicely, uniformly rolled joint.
A“ blunt” is also very common. It is the same idea as a joint but generally smokes more robustly and a little bit harsher. Blunts are rolled in tobacco wraps or leaves. They tend to burn more slowly and evenly than joints. Not all blunts are the same; they usually vary based on the wrap or leaf used to roll them. There are also non-tobacco alternatives when rolling blunts: palm leaves, tea wraps, herbal wraps, and hemp papers, to name a few.
Smoking cannabis is one of the most full-spectrum ways to enjoy the plant because you are getting all the goodness from the whole bud material: plant matter and trichomes. One very nice thing about smoking is that it is quite easy to control your dosage. The effects happen rather quickly and wear off in a significantly shorter time frame than with edibles.
You can take one puff, gauge how it makes you feel, and if you’ d like another one, go for it.
Please Note: If you’ re new to smoking, I suggest allowing some time in between puffs, at least 10 or 15 minutes, so you can gather the full effects and understand them before potentially elevating the“ High” feeling.
The most commonly thought of and used method of smoking worldwide is simply using a paper or leaf to roll up a marijuana cigarette. These are referred to as joints or blunts.
A joint is traditionally hand-rolled cannabis in a cigarette paper. It can be a simple hand-rolled paper, or more commonly now, a pre-rolled empty cone paper that you pack with bud. It is also common to insert a“ tip” into the end of the joint to act as a mouthpiece.
Image by Gerry D. aided by AI.
When you walk into a store that sells papers, blunts, and wraps, there is often a huge selection of flavored varieties, and it can be hard to decide what to pick. You should be able to taste your weed when you roll it up, even if you are using a harsher tobacco paper or leaf. Always pick unflavored papers and unflavored wraps or cigars; that way, you can enjoy the full flavor of your fresh cannabis. You should never be smoking something that needs to be covered up by artificial flavoring. It also doesn’ t really matter what size the paper is; they all do the same thing in the end. Try a few different varieties, and you’ ll land on the one that you prefer.
22 October 2026