Rolling papers
Encyclopedia
Rolling papers are small sheets, rolls, or leaves of paper
which are sold for rolling
one's own cigarette
s either by hand or with a rolling machine
. When rolling a cigarette, one fills the rolling paper with tobacco
, cannabis
, cloves, damiana
or other herb
s.
, flax
, or rice straw
as a base material. Some companies may use esparto
, which might lead to a slightly higher carcinogen level when burned. The basic design of a single paper is a long rectangle with a narrow strip of glue
or gum all along one of the long edges. Longer, rice-based rolling papers are also often used to make spliff
s or used by connoisseurs for cigarettes of the highest quality. Rolling papers are also called skins or rollies (a term which can also mean the hand-rolled cigarettes themselves), but the term skinning up usually only refers to the act of rolling a spliff
. Newer rolling papers are available in various flavors.
While a 1 sized paper is not exactly 25% larger than a 1 (single wide) paper, there is meaning to these size names. A better way to describe these accurately is that a 1 is designed to roll a cigarette that contains about 25% more filler than a single wide paper. Similarly a 1 size paper is designed to roll a cigarette that contains about 50% more than a single wide paper. A 1 size paper is larger than a 1 (single wide) paper and naturally a 1 size paper is larger than a 1 size paper, and a double wide is larger than a 1 size paper.
King Size is another multi-meaning term. While a King Size cigarette is typically 84mm long, a King Size rolling paper is either 100mm or 110mm in length.
, Tobacconist Magazine has called roll-your-own (RYO) the tobacco industry's fastest growing segment. It estimates that 2-4% of US cigarette smokers, or approximately 2.6 million people, make their own cigarettes. Many of these smokers have switched in response to increasingly high taxes on manufactured cigarettes.
In 2000, a Canadian government survey estimated that 9% of Canada
's 6 million cigarette smokers smoked hand-rolled cigarettes "sometimes or most of the time" - 7% smoked roll-your-owns "exclusively", and over 90% of rolling papers sold in Canada were for tobacco consumption. A more recent 2009 study has shown that approximately 925,000 Canadians roll their own cigarettes.
According to The Publican, "Low price RYO has seen an astonishing rise of 175 per cent in [2007] as cigarette smokers look for cheaper alternatives and to control the size of their smoke". Britain's
National Health Service
has reported that roll-your-own use has more than doubled since 1990, from 11% to 24%. Many of these smokers apparently believe that hand rolled cigarettes are healthier than manufactured products.
In Thailand
, roll-your-own smokers have long exceeded those for manufactured brands; the cheaper papers without gum are kept constantly between the fingers during a smoke there. New Zealand
reported in 2005 that: The ratio of roll-your-own to manufactured or tailor-made cigarettes consumed by New Zealanders has risen over (at least) the past decade, perhaps reflecting price differences between these products, and currently approaching 50 percent overall.
and Kentucky
tax rolling papers. Kentucky set its tax at $0.25 per pack (for up to 32 leaves, larger packs are taxed at $0.0078 per leaf) in 2006 despite complaints from manufacturers.
was accused of using illegal carcinogenic materials, namely esparto
, in their cigarette papers to cut costs but was never convicted.
, which reduce the risk of fire from unattended cigarettes, are made with special paper that includes a plastic compound, ethylene vinyl acetate. If a cigarette made with this type of paper is left unattended, the plastic in the paper will help the cigarette self-extinguish.
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
which are sold for rolling
Roll-your-own
Roll-your-own cigarettes refer to a cigarette made from loose tobacco and rolling papers. Roll-your-own products are sold as a pouch of tobacco for rolling hand-rolled cigarettes, sometimes with the rolling papers provided in the pouch...
one's own cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
s either by hand or with a rolling machine
Rolling machine
A rolling machine is a machine that is designed to roll either tobacco or cannabis into individual cigarettes or joints. To roll a cigarette with cannabis, one must break up the smoking material as well as remove any stems so they won't puncture the paper...
. When rolling a cigarette, one fills the rolling paper with tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, cannabis
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
, cloves, damiana
Damiana
Turnera diffusa, known as damiana, is a shrub native to southwestern Texas in the United States, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean. It belongs to the family Passifloraceae....
or other herb
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
s.
Usage
In Europe and North America, where taxation of machine-made cigarettes has caused economic disincentive for some smokers, rolling papers have become an increasingly popular method of tobacco consumption. In addition, people who roll their own cigarettes can customize the cigarette for any blend, and to any shape, size, and form they choose. Rolling papers are sold in lengths of 70mm - 110mm and a range of widths.Composition
Rolling papers are most commonly made with wood pulp, hempHemp
Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel with modest...
, flax
Flax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
, or rice straw
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
as a base material. Some companies may use esparto
Esparto
Esparto, or esparto grass, also known as "halfah grass" or "needle grass", Macrochloa tenacissima and Stipa tenacissima, is a perennial grass grown in northwest Africa and the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula employed for crafts .-Esparto paper:It is also used for fiber production for paper...
, which might lead to a slightly higher carcinogen level when burned. The basic design of a single paper is a long rectangle with a narrow strip of glue
Glue
This is a list of various types of glue. Historically, the term "glue" only referred to protein colloids prepared from animal flesh. The meaning has been extended to refer to any fluid adhesive....
or gum all along one of the long edges. Longer, rice-based rolling papers are also often used to make spliff
Joint (cannabis)
Joint is a slang term for a cigarette rolled using cannabis. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium among industrialized countries, however brown paper, cigarettes with the tobacco removed, and newspaper are commonly used in developing countries. Modern papers are now made from a wide...
s or used by connoisseurs for cigarettes of the highest quality. Rolling papers are also called skins or rollies (a term which can also mean the hand-rolled cigarettes themselves), but the term skinning up usually only refers to the act of rolling a spliff
Joint (cannabis)
Joint is a slang term for a cigarette rolled using cannabis. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium among industrialized countries, however brown paper, cigarettes with the tobacco removed, and newspaper are commonly used in developing countries. Modern papers are now made from a wide...
. Newer rolling papers are available in various flavors.
Dimensions
Most manufacturers who sell in the USA use the designations 1 (Single wide), 1¼ size, 1½ size and “Doublewide” (2 or 2.0) in connection with cigarette rolling papers. However, within the industry, these designations have slightly different meanings, much like the term Corona does not mean a definitive size but moreover a general size. Across the various brands of cigarette papers the actual widths of the papers using these designations vary greatly. For example, the 1¼ designation is used with papers having widths ranging from about 1.7 inches to 2 inches, and the 1½ designation is used with papers having widths ranging from around 2.4 to 3 inches. However the length of these papers is always 78mm (+/- 1mm). 1 is also known as "Spanish Size" or "French" in parts of the world.While a 1 sized paper is not exactly 25% larger than a 1 (single wide) paper, there is meaning to these size names. A better way to describe these accurately is that a 1 is designed to roll a cigarette that contains about 25% more filler than a single wide paper. Similarly a 1 size paper is designed to roll a cigarette that contains about 50% more than a single wide paper. A 1 size paper is larger than a 1 (single wide) paper and naturally a 1 size paper is larger than a 1 size paper, and a double wide is larger than a 1 size paper.
King Size is another multi-meaning term. While a King Size cigarette is typically 84mm long, a King Size rolling paper is either 100mm or 110mm in length.
Consumption
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Tobacconist Magazine has called roll-your-own (RYO) the tobacco industry's fastest growing segment. It estimates that 2-4% of US cigarette smokers, or approximately 2.6 million people, make their own cigarettes. Many of these smokers have switched in response to increasingly high taxes on manufactured cigarettes.
In 2000, a Canadian government survey estimated that 9% of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
's 6 million cigarette smokers smoked hand-rolled cigarettes "sometimes or most of the time" - 7% smoked roll-your-owns "exclusively", and over 90% of rolling papers sold in Canada were for tobacco consumption. A more recent 2009 study has shown that approximately 925,000 Canadians roll their own cigarettes.
According to The Publican, "Low price RYO has seen an astonishing rise of 175 per cent in [2007] as cigarette smokers look for cheaper alternatives and to control the size of their smoke". Britain's
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
has reported that roll-your-own use has more than doubled since 1990, from 11% to 24%. Many of these smokers apparently believe that hand rolled cigarettes are healthier than manufactured products.
In Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, roll-your-own smokers have long exceeded those for manufactured brands; the cheaper papers without gum are kept constantly between the fingers during a smoke there. New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
reported in 2005 that: The ratio of roll-your-own to manufactured or tailor-made cigarettes consumed by New Zealanders has risen over (at least) the past decade, perhaps reflecting price differences between these products, and currently approaching 50 percent overall.
Taxation
Consumers' switching to roll-your-own has led to a response among certain tax authorities. In the United States, IndianaIndiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
tax rolling papers. Kentucky set its tax at $0.25 per pack (for up to 32 leaves, larger packs are taxed at $0.0078 per leaf) in 2006 despite complaints from manufacturers.
Regulation
The FDA has recently stated that each and every brand (including private labels) of cigarette rolling papers sold in the USA must immediately submit their ingredients and seek agency approval or withdraw from the marketplace by March, 2011 if they have not been sold in the USA before February 15, 2007.Developments
The Spanish brand of SmokingSmoking rolling papers
Smoking is a brand of cigarette rolling papers. Smoking is manufactured by: in Barcelona, Spain. According to their website they were one of the earlier factories to produce rolling papers. Smoking offers different color packages which relate to the weight or material of the paper inside.-...
was accused of using illegal carcinogenic materials, namely esparto
Esparto
Esparto, or esparto grass, also known as "halfah grass" or "needle grass", Macrochloa tenacissima and Stipa tenacissima, is a perennial grass grown in northwest Africa and the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula employed for crafts .-Esparto paper:It is also used for fiber production for paper...
, in their cigarette papers to cut costs but was never convicted.
Fire-resistant applications
Fire-resistant cigarettesFire safe cigarettes
Fire safe cigarettes are cigarettes that are designed to extinguish more quickly than standard cigarettes, if ignored, with the intention of preventing accidental fires. These products are also known as Lower Ignition Propensity , Reduced Fire Risk , self-extinguishing, fire-safe or Reduced...
, which reduce the risk of fire from unattended cigarettes, are made with special paper that includes a plastic compound, ethylene vinyl acetate. If a cigarette made with this type of paper is left unattended, the plastic in the paper will help the cigarette self-extinguish.
Noted brands
- AbadieAbadieAbadie is a brand of rolling papers originating from Bolloré in France. There were also Spanish-made Abadie papers which are produced by Miguel Y Costas, as well as an Abadie factory in Vienna. The Abadie brand website has been removed due to French anti-tobacco legislation which prohibits the...
- (France 1840) Pink pack. - Bambu rolling papers - (Argentina & Spain)
- Bugler - (France) In the United States, a value brand, 115 leaves (folded) per book; competes with Rollit and TOP. Was once popular in U.S. Jails, back when smoking was allowed.
- Elements (Spain 1996) First ultra-thin rice paper. Famous for its magnetic closure system.
- JOBJOB (rolling papers)JOB rolling papers are a popular brand of cigarette paper produced by Republic Tobacco in Perpignan, France. In 1838, a French craftsman named Jean Bardou came up with the idea for a booklet of rolling papers made of thin, pure rice paper...
(France 1834) First rolling paper in booklet form. Famous for iconic art nouveauArt NouveauArt Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
advertising posters. - Juicy Jay'sJuicy Jay'sJuicy Jay's is a brand of flavored rolling paper, Cigar Tobaccos and Cigar Wraps. It is the #1 selling brand of flavored roll-your-own products in the world...
- Flavored paper brand, notably featured as part of the plot line in Grandma's Boy movie. - OCB - (France 1918) White pack.
- RAWRAW (unbleached vegan rolling paper)RAW is a brand of cigarette rolling paper used in the process of RYO . It contains a "proprietary" blend of vegan unbleached fibers, resulting in a thin, brown translucent paper...
- (Spain 2005) Unbleached vegan rolling papers, notable for their brown see-through properties. - RizLa+RizlaRizLa+ , known in English as Rizla is a brand of rolling papers and cigarette tubes or blanks in which tobacco is rolled or stuffed to form handmade cigarettes....
- Began in 1532, France, now Made in Belgium for Imperial Tobacco, UKImperial TobaccoImperial Tobacco is a global tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom. It is the world’s fourth-largest cigarette company measured by market share , and the world's largest producer of cigars, fine-cut tobacco and tobacco papers...
and is 75% of the UK rolling paper market. - Pay-PayPay-PayPay-Pay is the oldest brand of cigarette rolling paper in the world. Pay-Pay rolling papers were originally traded by Spanish sailors for cotton and tobacco in North America; this is the earliest record of a paper entering the North American market...
- Old brand from Alcoy Spain - Rollit - Made in Belgium for RBA, the U.S. subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco, UKImperial TobaccoImperial Tobacco is a global tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom. It is the world’s fourth-largest cigarette company measured by market share , and the world's largest producer of cigars, fine-cut tobacco and tobacco papers...
. A value brand, 100 leaves (folded) per book; competes with Bugler and TOP. - SmokingSmoking rolling papersSmoking is a brand of cigarette rolling papers. Smoking is manufactured by: in Barcelona, Spain. According to their website they were one of the earlier factories to produce rolling papers. Smoking offers different color packages which relate to the weight or material of the paper inside.-...
- (Spain & Argentina) Popular in parts of the world. - Tally-HoTally-HoTally Ho is an Australian brand of cigarette rolling paper distributed by Imperial Tobacco Australia. The packaging of the product aims to appeal to Australian patriotism, with many assertions such as 'Australia's Finest' and 'Australia's No.1 paper for over 60 years'...
- Made in Belgium. In Australia, known for its patriotism. - TOPTOP (rolling papers)TOP is a brand of cigarette rolling papers distributed by Republic Tobacco of Glenview, Illinois. Republic Tobacco paid an undisclosed amount to acquire the brand from R. J. Reynolds in 1987....
- (France) In the United States, a value brand, 100 leaves (not folded) per book; competes with Bugler and Rollit. - Zig-ZagZig-Zag (company)Zig-Zag is a brand of rolling papers that originated in France. It is marketed in the USA by National Tobacco, in Europe by Republic Technologies, and in Japan by Tsuge Pipes...
- (France) First interleaved brand (hence the name). Gold medalGold medalA gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
at 1900 Universal Exposition in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.