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How to Put Out a Joint

Joint put off in an ashtray

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One of the most popular and oldest ways of smoking cannabis is the well-known joint. A joint is a rolled cannabis cigarette, often made of rice or hemp paper, cradling a compact bunch of ground flowers inside it.

You can roll it yourself by hand or use rolling devices. Doing it yourself has some advantages: you can roll slim toothpick joints or fat blunts, choose your filter option, and give them straight or coned shapes. You can also mix your ground weed with tobacco, sprinkle it with kief, or add to it a few drops of CBD extract.

Lighting up a joint is not the same as with a tobacco cigarette, given that tobacco and weed have different ways of burning. Inhaling too fast during the lighting process will burn the joint unevenly and cause it to “canoe.”

You have to be extra careful if your joint is lightly packed or too thick, so avoid canoeing by rolling its tip slowly near the flame to start it evenly. Here we have some additional clues about how to light a joint that will help you. Why not try one of these techniques with one of our pre-rolls?

Key Takeaways

  • The several methods to put out a joint include stubbing, grazing, knocking, flicking, cutting, drowning, and blowing.
  • Proper storage of an unfinished joint is crucial to preserve its freshness. Airtight containers like glass mason jars, packaging tubes from pre-roll joints, Doob tubes, or Ziploc bags are excellent storage ways.
  • Prioritize safety and environmental responsibility when disposing of a joint.

How to Put Out a Joint

Putting your joint out for later is also different from what we would do with a tobacco cigarette, but there are some common principles. To put out a fire, we need to understand it first. Although a lit joint is not precisely a wildfire, the basic principles stand.

To keep going, the wildfire and the joint need oxygen and a fuel source. To kill the reaction, we need to deprive it of one or both of them. Every fire-extinguishing technique uses this concept, from firefighting brigades to humble weed joint smokers.

How to Put Out a Pre-rolled Joint

If you have trouble rolling your joints or simply want something ready-made, try pre-rolled joints. These beautiful joints have an integrated filter, come in different shapes and sizes, and are sometimes infused with THC or CBD oil.

You can also get pre-rolled cones that you can fill with your favorite strains. Check out our wide variety of pre-rolled options. In the same way that pre-rolled joints are easy to handle and light, they are also easy to put out. You can seal them back inside their original airtight package, where they will run out of oxygen and die out.

Leaving them unattended on your ashtray eventually kills off the blunt, but it takes time. Also, you will lose some valuable weed. A slight lengthwise pressure on the end will also deprive the joint of oxygen and suffocate it. For more ideas about smoking and putting out pre-rolls, you can read our guide about how to smoke a pre-roll.

How to Put Out a Joint for Later

An old saying goes, “Do not roll it if you cannot smoke it.” As daring as this sounds, we do not always have the option of smoking a whole blunt in one go. We may have to temporarily interrupt our session to take care of an urgent matter, change venues, or get some snacks.

We might need a break and not be sure of when we will light up that joint again. In any case, we do not want to waste the weed and effort by damaging the joint or letting it burn unused. There is no standard way to put out a joint to save it for later.

Here we give you some pointers that you may use to safely put it out without damaging it and unnecessarily burning weed.

1. Stubbing

You can press the tip of your joint against a flat, hard surface to put it out. This technique is similar to the one you would use with a cigarette, except you have to be gentler with a joint to avoid squashing it and ruining its shape.

2. Grazing

Similar to the stubbing technique, you softly graze the burning cherry sideways against the walls of the ashtray. Doing this a few times will make the cherry fall from the joint tip. Once it falls off, it will burn for a few seconds before dying.

3. Knocking

Another way of putting out your joint is to knock it against the ashtray to dislodge the cherry from the tip. We recommend this technique for experienced users since using too much force could damage the more delicate joints.

4. Flicking

This technique’s goal is the same as the previous ones, to physically remove the burning cherry from the rest of the joint. Hold it gently between your fingers without too much pressure and flick the tip away using the bottom of your lighter or a fingernail.

5. Cutting

Inexperienced smokers might find it difficult to put out a joint. Cutting the cherry out with scissors or a sharp knife is a safe and straightforward way to put out your joint while preserving the rest intact.

6. Drowning

Instead of removing the burning cherry from the joint, many people prefer to touch it with a small amount of water or saliva.

This technique avoids accidental fires from the detached cherry, but you need to be careful not to wet the rest of the joint, or it will be an ordeal to relight later. Blow on the put-out joint to remove excess moisture before tucking it away to avoid it going stale.

7. Blowing

This technique is a fascinating and counterintuitive one. It consists of blowing into the joint for around ten seconds. The inverse airflow will isolate the burning cherry from the neighboring weed fuel, while the increased airspeed makes it burn faster and consume itself. After a few seconds, the cherry will die without touching the rest of the joint.

Here's all the above in summary:

Method Description Considerations
Stubbing Press the tip of the joint against a flat, hard surface. Be gentle to avoid squashing and ruining the joint's shape.
Grazing Softly graze the burning cherry sideways against the walls of the ashtray. This will make the cherry fall off and burn out.
Knocking Knock the joint against the ashtray to dislodge the cherry. Recommended for experienced users; too much force can damage delicate joints.
Flicking Hold the joint gently and flick the tip away using the bottom of a lighter or a fingernail. The goal is to physically remove the burning cherry.
Cutting Cut the cherry out with scissors or a sharp knife. Safe and straightforward, preserves the rest of the joint intact.
Drowning Touch the burning cherry with a small amount of water or saliva. Avoid wetting the rest of the joint; blow on it to remove excess moisture.
Blowing Blow into the joint for about ten seconds. The inverse airflow isolates the cherry, making it burn faster and consume itself.

How to Take Care of an Unfinished Joint

With unfinished joints, the air in the environment promotes aging, so you might get a stale taste when you light it again. To avoid this, store it inside an airtight container to keep it fresh for next time.

Glass mason jars are the best for it, as long as they have an airtight lid. The packaging tubes of your pre-roll joints and Doob tubes are portable and airtight, hence excellent places to store a half-smoked joint.

On the other hand, Ziploc bags are cheap yet acceptable options if you do not have sealable containers. Even if they do not protect your joint from impact, they have the advantage that you can suck the air out of them before sealing, which will lengthen the freshness time of your joint.

Be careful around fire. When you put out your joint, finished or not, check that what should not be burning is effectively not burning. If you have a nice smoke outdoors, do not toss your ash or roaches into the bushes since the slightest ember might start a wildfire, especially during dry summer months.

When your joint runs out, you can squash it against your shoe sole or any flat surface and check that it is entirely off by tapping it with your fingertip before saving it to dispose of in a bin. For more techniques, check this video.

Final Thoughts

While it's always best to enjoy your blunt/joint fresh, sometimes you just have to put it off midway and proceed later. Such situations are common, so knowing how to put off a joint is definitely helpful.

Done well, you can slow down the aging process and, fortunately, get your unfinished joint in a good state. And why not? You now know seven ways to do so! But if you'd rather enjoy your weed with all its potency, then it's high time you know how to make joints rolled in kief and wax.

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