How to smoke without tobacco: 3 alternatives in a joint

The tobacco joint is a regional habit, not a technical necessity. The 2014 Global Drug Survey, analysed in 2016 in Frontiers in Psychiatry, questioned 33,687 cannabis users. In France, 87.5% used a route involving tobacco. Across European countries, the share ranged from 77.2 to 90.9%. In the Americas, it fell to between 4.4 and 16.0%.

The same study found a link with wanting to quit. People who used cannabis without tobacco had 1.8 times the odds of saying they would like help to cut down on tobacco. This is an association observed in a survey, not a proven effect.

Tobacco carries a heavy toll on its own. The WHO states that tobacco kills more than 7 million people every year, including 1.6 million non-smokers, and that nicotine is "highly addictive". Our article on the differences between tobacco and cannabis compares the two kinds of smoke.

This is the most direct solution. Tobacco was used to stretch the material and even out the burn; well-prepared flower does the same job.

• Grind fine and even. A multi-chamber grinder gives a uniform texture that burns at a steady rate. With a knife, the pieces stay uneven. Our comparison of grinder types helps you choose.
• Check the moisture. Flower that is too moist rolls badly and goes out; too dry, it burns fast and hot. Our guide to storing flowers gives the reference points.
• Adapt the rolling. A slightly wider paper helps spread the flower. Lay it out in an even layer, with no denser patches, and put a cardboard filter at the mouth end to hold the structure.
• Plan for more flower. Without tobacco, you need more material for a joint of the same size.

These flowers are in our CBD flowers category, with the CBD level shown for each product.

Blends of dried plants are sold to replace the bulk of tobacco: mallow, chamomile, cornflower, rose petals, damiana. They contain no nicotine and burn fairly neutrally. Start with equal parts herbs and flower, then adjust to taste and draw. Avoid blends scented with synthetic flavourings, which mask the taste of the flower.

Nicotine-free does not mean smoke-free. In 2015, Korean researchers used a smoking machine to analyse the smoke from a herbal cigarette sold as a quitting aid. They found neither nicotine nor tobacco-specific nitrosamines. But the smoke contained more carbon monoxide and benzo(a)pyrene than a regular cigarette with the same tar level. Its condensates also proved mutagenic. Any burning plant material produces compounds of this kind.

A vaporiser heats the flower without setting it alight, until the cannabinoids and terpenes turn into vapour. There is no flame, so there is nothing to add: the tobacco question disappears.

A trial published in 2007 in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics compared, in 18 hospitalised volunteers, a desktop vaporiser and a cannabis cigarette. Blood THC levels were similar. Exhaled carbon monoxide was reduced with the vaporiser. The trial involved THC cannabis over six days: it describes a way of consuming, not a health benefit.

For settings, see our guide to vaporisation temperatures, and for equipment, our selection of useful accessories.

If your main goal is to drop nicotine, all three options get you there. If you also want to avoid smoke, only the third does. Our article on CBD and quitting tobacco sets out what research has measured, without promises.

Removing tobacco does not change the status of what is inside. In France, only hemp flower whose Δ⁹-THC does not exceed 0.30% is allowed. THC-rich cannabis remains a narcotic: using it is punishable by up to one year in prison and a 3,750 euro fine, or by a fixed fine of 500 euros. And a compliant flower can be enough to trigger a positive roadside saliva test. Our article on smoking hemp covers this framework.