Rolling paper

Rolling papers are small sheets, rolls, or leaves of paper which are sold for rolling one's own cigarettes either by hand or with a rolling machine. When rolling a cigarette, one fills the rolling paper with tobacco, cannabis or other herbs.

Diagram of a cigarette.
1. Filter made of 95% cellulose acetate.
2. Tipping paper to cover the filter.
3. Rolling paper to cover the tobacco.
4. Tobacco blend.

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, hemp, flax, or rice 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 spliffs 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. This is said to enhance the smoking experience.

Dimensions

Most manufacturers who sell in the USA use the designations 1 (Single wide), 1¼ (1.25) size, 1½ (1.5) 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.; and, 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 1/4 is also known as "Spanish Size" or "French" in parts of the world.

While a 1 1/4 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 1/4 is designed to roll a cigarette that contains about 25% more tobacco then a single wide paper. Similarly a 1 1/2 size paper is designed to roll a cigarette that contains about 50% more than a single wide paper. A 1 1/4 size paper is larger than a 1 (single wide) paper and naturally a 1 1/2 size paper is larger than a 1 1/4 size paper, and a double wide is larger than a 1 1/2 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 States, 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. , TTB stats

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 ref

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. 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.

Taxation

Consumer's switching to roll-your-own has led to a response among certain tax authorities. In the United States, Indiana 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. .

Developments

The Spanish brand of Smoking was accused of using illegal carcinogenic materials, namely esparto, in their cigarette papers to cut costs but was never convicted .

Fire-resistant applications

Fire-resistant cigarettes, 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.

Other uses

Rolling paper can be used for more than just rolling cigarettes:

• After soaking in potassium nitrate, rolling paper can be fitted to a base bullet to make a combustible paper cartridge.
• Cigarette papers are often used while playing the electric guitar to carry out notes and make a unique sound.
• As an inexpensive bandage to stop bleeding.
• Players of wind instruments, particularly flutes, use rolling paper as a blotter to remove moisture that accumulates in keypads or joints. Some clarinet players use a folded piece of rolling paper over their two front bottom teeth to protect the bottom lip from being cut, due to the pressure from the weight of the clarinet on the lip.
• In computer-aided manufacture for setting the right level for drills. The paper is placed on the object to be machined and the drill is lowered until it catches the paper. Because the paper is so thin, this is the easiest way to get an exact start point for the drill.
• By DJs to tighten a loose centre hole of a record. The paper is placed over the spindle and the record pushed down on top. This prevents the needle skipping from lateral movement due to a large centre hole.
• They can also be used as an instrument by themselves; by folding it and using it as a flute, just as one can with grass-straws, thin candy wrappers or other thin plastic, and similar.
• A number of photographers use them as disposable lens cleaners. Though some are reticent to do so, due to the possibility of scratching the coating of the lenses. However, this can occur using other materials as well. The effects of using cigarette paper to clean photographic lenses are not noticeable in the form of decreased image quality, unless used extremely often over a long period of time.
• Rolling paper can be used as a cheaper alternative to facial oil blotting paper.
• Rolling papers are an excellent way to repair a torn page in a book. Tear off a piece that will cover the tear, wet it completely, and press it down on the page. When it dries it will be nearly transparent and serve as a kind of paper transplant.
• Low temperature physicists sometimes use rolling paper as a heat-sink. It soaks up GE varnish, sticking to the low temperature metallic probe, and acting as an electrical insulator between a wire or sample and the probe. However, because it is so thin, it acts as a thermal conductor, and therefore maintains the wire or sample at a low temperature.
• Rolling papers are used for 'Cautery' in ENT operations, in case the proper one that comes with the instrument is missing.

Noted brands

• Abadie - (France 1840) Pink pack.
• Bambu rolling papers - (Spain 1764, moved to Argentina 1990)
• 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.
• JOB (France 1834) First rolling paper in booklet form. Famous for iconic art nouveau advertising posters.
• OCB - (France 1918) White pack.
• RAW - (Spain 2005) Unbleached vegan rolling papers, notable for their brown see-through properties.
• RizLa+ - Began in 1532, France, now Made in Belgium for Imperial Tobacco, UK and is 75% of the UK rolling paper market.
• Pay-Pay - (Spain 1703) Oldest brand of rolling papers in the world.
• Rollit - Made in Belgium for RBA, the U.S. subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco, UK. A value brand, 100 leaves (folded) per book; competes with Bugler and TOP.
• Smoking - (Spain) Popular in parts of Europe and the Middle East.
• Tally-Ho - Made in Belgium. In Australia, known for its patriotism.
• TOP - (France) In the United States, a value brand, 100 leaves (not folded) per book; competes with Bugler and Rollit.
• Zig-Zag - (France) First interleaved brand (hence the name). Gold medal at 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris.

See also

• Tobacco
• Tobacco smoking
• Shag
• Blunt
• Kretek

External links

• Rollingpapers.net
• Roll Your Own Magazine
• Rollingsupreme.com
• Collection of 100's of Rolling Papers