Joints are among the most popular ways to partake in a bit of cannabis, and among the most obvious visual signifiers of cannabis use. Once portrayed as a wad of twisted toilet paper, the joint has become a sleek symbol of the modern weed consumer, and their conical cousins are not just a goofy avatar of cannabis past, cone joints are big business.
A joint is considered a cone when the tip is wider than the mouthpiece. This method of rolling is preferential for anyone invested in the aesthetics of smoking, as the cone joint is a counterculture icon. Most crappy joints are as smokeable as a perfect cone, but one “looks” the part while the other is simply utilitarian.
This is why people sharpen their rolling skills — being able to pull out a beautifully executed cone is membership in the cult of stoner personality. It’s a rebel yell, it sticks out, clearly exclaiming that it is not a cigarette. Here’s how you can craft your own perfect joint.
A step-by-step guide to roll your own cannabis cone joint
Keep in mind that cones aren’t always mondo-sized behemoths with gram after gram of fancy weed inside. They come in pretty much any size, so try using the same amount of cannabis you’d put in a typical joint, then adjusting to your preferences. What makes a cone a joint is the shape, not the size (though they tend to lean a little girthy).
Materials
Cannabis strain of choice
Rolling papers
Crutch or filter tip
Pen or toothpick (used to pack down the weed)
Directions for a hand-rolled cone
Step 1 — roll your crutch
Roll a ½” diameter crutch with lightweight cardboard or purpose-made tips. Hold it on the rolling paper in the fold or crease with the adhesive gum at the very top
Step 2 — fill your roll
Sprinkle your desired amount of well ground flower along the centerfold, this can be anything from a half gram to an entire eighth.
Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
Step 3 — shape your cone
Fold the excess paper up over the crutch and the flower using your thumbs and gentle pressure. Using a motion similar to snapping your fingers in slow motion, tuck the paper into the flower as you begin to form a joint.
Step 4 — twist it up
When you creep up to the top of the paper, lightly moisten the gum strip. Quickly finish the twist upwards to seal the joint. Tuck or twist the tip and you’re ready for fire.
Tip: If you usually roll with your fingers evenly placed on the paper, then to get a cone shape it’s helpful to position them much closer to the edges. Some people make an angled crease in the paper before beginning to create a guide, maintaining a tighter wrap on the bottom with a slightly loose arrangement on the top.
Play with the tension you use at the top. Just like any joint, tight is good, but too tight means a sub-par burn. Conversely, if you roll or pack a cone too loosely, you’ll end up with a floppy and unreliable joint.
Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
Directions to fill a pre-made cone
Step 1 — funnel your cannabis
Using a creased business card or sheet of paper, create a funnel for your herb. Depending on the size of the cone, you will need between ¾ gram and 2 grams of ground material to fill it up. Use the funnel to add a pinch of flower at a time into the cone.
Step 2 — pack it down
Using a pen or toothpick, push the ground material down gently, without too much force. Continue to add and pack the flower until you reach the tip.
Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
Step 3 — twist it up
Twist or fold the last ¼” of the cone into itself to create a bit of kindling for the flame of a lighter, match, or hemp wick.
The pros of cone smoking versus regular, uniform thickness joints are strictly personal. One doesn’t burn better than the other as long as they’re rolled proper.
For many people, coffee is a crucial part of their morning routine (read: I can’t function without large quantities of caffeine). While coffee can feel like magical get-stuff-done juice, too much of a good thing can leave you jittery, anxious, and seriously over-caffeinated.
Cannabidoil (CBD), a non-intoxicating cannabinoid, can help solve that problem according to some consumers. Currently, CBD can be found in all kinds of products, from pet treats to skincare to CBD lattes at your local coffee shop. And CBD-infused beverages have made an especially large impact — Zenith Global projects that the market for CBD and hemp infused drinks will grow to over $1.4 Billion by 2024.
Of the drinkable CBD products currently sold, CBD coffee is one of the most popular. Over the last several years, the number of coffee shops and cafés offering different CBD-infused coffee and espresso drinks has noticeably increased. For the dedicated coffee-drinker, the appeal seems obvious: all the focus and productivity of a solid caffeine rush without the impending doom of potential overindulgence.
What is CBD Coffee?
CBD coffee, as you probably guessed, is a combination of coffee and cannabidoil. It can include different ingredients and be made into regular hot coffee, cold brew, and various other types of drinks. Coffee shops that offer CBD-infused options typically add CBD oil to coffee after it’s brewed, while coffee brands add CBD (often in isolate form) to the coffee beans themselves.
The amount of CBD per cup of joe will vary, but it’s important to only buy from trusted retailers. Since CBD beverages are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, companies don’t always disclose how their CBD is extracted or exactly how many milligrams are in each serving.
According to Adrian Devitt-Lee, chief science writer at Project CBD, “Packaging should clearly indicate total cannabinoid content and dosage, and products should always have a batch number. Avoid products with artificial colors or flavors … Don’t be afraid to contact a company directly to ask them about their products — if they are not forthcoming, pick another one.”
What is CBD coffee good for?
Consumers report using CBD for a variety of reasons, but a lot more research must be done in order to know exactly which ailments it can clinically relieve.
So, are there health benefits to a cup of coffee with CBD oil in it? Not likely. But based on product testimonials and five-star reviews, many consumers believe that coffee with added CBD can reduce caffeine-induced anxiety and help improve focus, and the logic makes some sense — CBD has calming properties that may take the edge off of caffeine.
However, it’s important to understand that both CBD and caffeine affect everyone differently, which means there’s no way to tell if it will help you without trying it for yourself.
Does CBD coffee work?
The simple answer to whether or not CBD coffee works is: it depends. “CBD may be able to take the edge off of caffeine on a neurological level, but it’s also possible that caffeine could undermine some beneficial effects of CBD, including its potency as an anti-epileptic,” said Devitt-Lee.
“Do they balance each other out or interfere? It will depend on the dose and [you] will likely have to experiment based on their own caffeine and cannabinoid sensitivities,” he added.
I brewed a pot of Green Roads Hemp Flower Coffee to get the creative juices flowing as I sat down to write this article. My first impression was that the coffee tasted surprisingly good, not overly herbal or unpleasant. Lee Sosin, Chief Marketing Officer at Green Roads, explained, “The true flavor is really coming from the gourmet coffee beans grown on that lush Colombian estate. You will be able to taste the influence of hemp, but it is gentle and it works well with the coffee.”
Photo courtesy of Green Roads
After my first cup of CBD coffee (with oat milk and a spoonful of sugar) I didn’t feel especially caffeinated or relaxed, so I decided to have a second cup. That may have been a bit much considering I drink coffee on an empty stomach every morning, and I started to feel a little sleepy. I compensated with a regular cup of cold brew and a glass of water, which left me feeling the right amount of caffeinated and focused.
After two to three cups of coffee, the daily norm for 44 percent of Americans, I didn’t feel jittery or anxious at all. I did learn that I personally need a greater ratio of caffeine to CBD in order to feel awake, so next time I plan to limit my intake to one cup.
The best advice I can offer to my fellow caffeine-lovers who suffer from stress is to understand that CBD coffee may not be the best method of consumption if you’re using CBD for medicinal purposes, and to always do your research before choosing a brand. “Many CBD companies are starting to use similar language about things like testing, but consumers should understand that there’s a big difference between companies that test their own CBD isolates, and someone like Green Roads that has an accredited independent lab run a full-panel test on every batch of finished products,” offered Sosin.
What are our favorite CBD coffees?
There are plenty of great CBD brands out there, but check out a few well-known options for an infused caffeine fix:
Green Roads Founders’ Blend
Photo courtesy of Green Roads
Thanks to the company’s strict quality control, Green Roads is a great option for CBD coffee newbies. Their Founders’ Blend is crafted in small batches, the most recent batch containing 9.67 milligrams of cannabinoids per serving. They also sell CBD tea, gummies, oils, and tons of other products to fit any lifestyle.
Flower Power Coffee Co. is another popular option for hemp-infused coffee, with 60 milligram blends like the New York Signature Roast and Big Island Joe. If you brew it on its own — you could mix it with other coffee too — you’ll get 5 milligrams per cup, which is a great starting point for those who don’t know how CBD will affect them.
If you’ve ever smoked Viola then you’re probably familiar with CEO Al Harrington.
Al Harrington is a 16-year NBA veteran turned cannabis entrepreneur. He owns multiple brands across the industry including Viola and Harrington Wellness, which produces his re+PLAY CBD brand.
As the story goes, Harrington started using cannabis during his NBA career as an alternative to opioids. He had many injuries that sidelined him over time, and knowing the negative effects that pain pills can have on the body, he knew there was a better way. Weed was that way.
After retiring from the NBA, Harrington moved into the cannabis industry with his company Viola. Viola was named after his grandmother, who he introduced to cannabis and all of its healing properties.
We got the chance to chop it up with Viola frontman about some of the cannabis products he can’t live without.
re+PLAY Hemp Extracts
As you’d expect, most of the products Harrington uses are from his own companies. He quite literally gets high off his own supply. Of those products, the one brand he champions the most for healing supplements is his re+PLAY capsules, tinctures, and topicals.
“Our topicals are really good. We have some technology in our cream base that penetrates the skin five times faster and deeper than anything on the market. I obviously use that on a daily basis, usually, a lot on my neck, believe it or not. It kind of like just loosens me up for the day.”
After 16 years in the league, Al’s body simply couldn’t take anymore NBA basketball. His next journey became Ice Cube’s BIG3 League, which hosts retired NBA veterans and overseas talent. The Big 3 was the first professional league to allow the use of CBD for pain management and recovery.
“If I had re+PLAY Hemp Extract available towards the end of my [NBA] career, I feel like I could have played longer. I could not get the swelling out of my knee is why I retired. I started using [hemp topicals], that’s why I was able to play in the BIG3 for two years and pain-free, no swelling.”
“I don’t leave home without my Puffco Peak,” Harrington told us.
The Puffco Peak is one of the best portable vaporizers on the market. It bolsters an incredibly flavorful smoking experience from four different temperature settings: Blue (450 degrees F), Green (500 degrees F), Red (550 degrees F), and White (600 degrees F). Al prefers the Red.
Portability and ease of use, complete with a carrying case and customization through accessories, are why stoners hold this device in the highest regard.
It comes with a hefty price tag, but being able to hit perfectly-tempered dabs in 20 seconds’ time — without all the torches and butanes — makes it well worth the ticket.
Viola offers a complete product line including flower, concentrates, pre-rolls, vape pens — everything, all of that. Harrington keeps a fresh eighth of Viola’s premium indoor flower on him at all times.
The company produces a full slew of strains and chemotypes, of which Al says, “I like all of our OGs and our hybrid indicas because I like to relax when I consume.”
Last of Al’s top 5 products are his Viola pre-rolls. They’re made with premium indoor flower.
Viola products are available in California, Oregon, Michigan, and Colorado. If you’d like to try their pre-rolls, flower, and concentrates all at once, scoop up the Viola Influencer Pack. It contains a half-ounce of bud, 1 gram of dabs, and a couple of glass-tip pre-rolls.
Viola’s THC products are available in these states: California, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon
Viola’s CBD products are available in these states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Washington
In July 2019, Pennsylvania added Tourette syndrome to the list of conditions that qualify for medicinal cannabis use. Contributor Lorena Cupcake explains what Tourette syndrome is and looks at the place of cannabis when it comes to Tourette syndrome, using their own experiences as a medical cannabis patient.
Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month is recognized from May 15th to June 15th each year, inspiring some of the estimated 100,000 people living with Tourette Syndrome nationwide to share their stories with the hashtag #TouretteAwarenessMonth. As a medical cannabis patient — qualified due to my diagnosis — I’m sharing my experiences managing my condition with cannabis to help fill in the gaps in a field with little published research.
The research of neurology is hindered by the limitations of non-invasive techniques; my brain may only reveal some secrets after I’m dead. I’m telling my story while I’m still here so the conversation on the future role of cannabis in treating Tourette Syndrome can grow and gain momentum, leading to more high-quality studies, a better understanding of the behind-the-scenes biological functions, and increased access to decriminalized cannabis. Currently, only seven states including Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio have specifically approved Tourette Syndrome as a condition for medicinal cannabis use.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Tourette syndrome (often shortened to TS, or Tourette) is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary movements and vocalizations known as “tics.” Every human experiences involuntary actions; we cringe when embarrassed, yelp when startled, and reflexively snatch our hands away from hot surfaces. These types of unconscious reactions are governed by the nervous system, which is divided into the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).
To understand why people with TS have tics, and how cannabis may help with both tics and related medical conditions, it’s important to know the difference between the two divisions and the role in their body.
Fight, flight, or freeze
The SNS is most famously associated with “fight, flight, or freeze,” three evolutionary responses to danger tracing back to the caveman days. While this system can keep us out of danger, it’s overactive in people with TS, causing uncomfortable symptoms of anxiety, like rapid heartbeat, skin tingling, and chest tightness. The pressure builds unbearably until it’s released with an involuntary movement. Suddenly, there’s a wave of relief … until the pressure returns.
It’s a cycle familiar to anyone with neurobiologically similar conditions like Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (where the relief comes from giving in to a compulsion) or body-focused repetitive behavior disorders (which include conditions like Trichotillomania, a condition also called “hair-pulling disorder” by the Mayo Clinic). It’s important to realize that people with these medical issues aren’t simply lacking willpower; the basal ganglia, which would normally send inhibitory signals to suppress unwanted behaviors, isn’t functioning as effectively as it would in a neurotypical brain.
Pharmacological treatments for TS usually focus on suppressing dopamine, a messenger molecule your neurons use to initiate movements, both voluntary and not. I’ve personally had better results from cannabis, which has helped me learn to control and, more importantly, comfortably cope with tics through activation of the PNS.
Rest and digest
The parasympathetic nervous system, which slows the heart rate, increases saliva production, and stimulates the digestive tract, is nicknamed the “rest and digest” response. Many techniques exist to help activate this system, including mindfulness, meditation, and stimulation of the vagus nerve.
This 2017 Iranian journal details how the endocannabinoid system modulates the release of GABA, a neurotransmitter with receptors found throughout the parasympathetic nervous system with the ability to decrease blood pressure, reduce stress, and stimulate appetite. Rather than directly blocking tics, the right type of cannabis-based product puts me in a relaxed state where tics are less likely to occur, easier to control, and less uncomfortable to endure.
Recognizing the importance of accessibility to this treatment, numerous states have approved medical marijuana as a treatment for TS. The key to gaining acceptance nationwide may lie in raising awareness of the many biological similarities between a relatively-rare syndrome and more well-known disorders that are widely recognized to be effectively regulated with cannabis.
Cannabis and movement
Movement disorders are neurological conditions that affect the ability to control movement. There’s evidence that cannabinoids produced naturally by the body assist in motor control, and that dysfunction of the endocannabinoid system plays a role in the pathophysiology of movement disorders like Parkinson’s Disease.
Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
An anonymous survey conducted by the Prague Movement Disorder Centre found that one-quarter of the respondents had tried cannabis, with 45.9% of them going on to describe some sort of benefit. “Once I started taking CBD oil, I never had a sleepless night because I couldn’t relax my muscle groups,” septuagenarian Garry Griffin told CBD Denver following his participation in a University of Colorado study on the use of cannabidiol oil in patients with Parkinson’s Disease. “I’m not a stoner, but I am a proponent.”
The basal ganglia, mentioned earlier for its role in regulating unwanted movement, contains many endocannabinoid receptors. When cannabinoids bind with these receptors, they can help alleviate involuntary movements by assisting in the regulation of neurochemicals linked to signaling and movement.
Tics respond well to cannabis, with 82% of participants in a 1998 German study reporting improvement and one patient remaining symptom-free for an entire year. What’s missing is research that clearly explains the full role of cannabinoid receptors and the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in TS pathology and treatment, along with education, therapies, and medications that utilize those findings.
The potential of cannabis to calm spasticity, tremors, muscle tightness, muscle jerks, and pain associated with disorders like dystonia, epilepsy, and restless leg syndrome is documented, allowing insight into the significant biological impact of marijuana on movement. Until larger and more through studies can take place, the positive experiences with cannabis reported by many people with Parkinson’s, TS, and other movement disorders suggests that we have more to learn about the role of the ECS in governing movement.
Life on the spectrum
Tourette Syndrome is a spectrum disorder or a collection of conditions that share traits and characteristics. There are only so many different regions of the brain; only a limited array of neurochemicals used by the nervous system. Brain abnormalities and neurotransmitter dysfunction will often express themselves in diverse ways, with symptoms that may be associated with a range of different conditions.
People on the Tourette Syndrome Spectrum have much higher rates of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Autism Spectrum Disorder, and learning disabilities like Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder than the general public. They’re also more likely to have anxiety, personality, and mood disorders. Even if someone doesn’t qualify for dual diagnosis, they may still experience some symptoms; the reverse can be true for those with a primary diagnosis other than TS. For example, up to 50% of children with OCD experience tics.
Although these conditions are often considered separate, they share underlying biological mechanisms that link them together, which explains why cannabis may be beneficial in regulating all of them.
Looking Forward
Over the past couple of decades I’ve been living with TS, I’ve used cannabis alongside cognitive-behavioral techniques to cope. Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT), a type of Habit-Reversal Training, teaches people with TS to identify the premonitory urges that come before a tic. They can then choose a low-impact and easy-to-disguise movement — like squeezing a fist— over tics that can be distressing, painful, or stigmatized.
Suppressing tics can be frustrating and physically uncomfortable, so I’m grateful to have a way to “get them out of my system” while minimizing unwanted attention and avoiding tics that might be dangerous or harmful. At the same time, daily cannabis use relaxes my body, reduces my anxiety, and balances my mood, making it easier to consciously activate my PNS and less stressful to manage my tics.
I’ve learned to accept that life on the Tourette Syndrome Spectrum means that every symptom is a puzzle piece that helps me figure out how and why my body works as it does. Cannabis doesn’t just improve my quality of life; it helps me gain insight into, and control over, the two divisions of my central nervous system.
Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
Photo courtesy of Green Roads
Photo courtesy of Green Roads
Gina Coleman/Weedmaps