Let’s face it.
Being laid off during a pandemic is no fun.
While nearly all your friends and family are still working, you’re stuck at home—with little government cash—with nothing but time on your hands.
Sparking a fatty might come at any hour (sometimes in PJs), and tidying up the home or running out for chores aren’t priorities like they were during those pre-CoVid days.
That laziness can mean some regular smokers aren’t reaching for their usual flower orders anymore.
Rather, cannabis consumers who are on CERB are opting for an easier, safer route to get high fast: pre-rolled joints.
Here are five reasons why:
1. Cost.
CERB recipients get little financial aid from the government so, when it comes to budgeting for the week, only a few bucks can be set aside for a fix. Dispensaries and online retailers offer prerolls in tubes or packs for as low as $11, with two joints or more.
2. Convenience.
There’s no question having to take out the flower bag plus the grinder and the paper—and then having sneak around the corner of the house to roll the weed—is a pain. The preroll is pre-made, with a filter, and is ready to be lit at any time.
3. The tubes.
Those sleek containers are a thing of beauty. Durable and lightweight, the tubes are small enough to pop into your pocket when out for a walk but yet often big enough to accommodate a lighter. The genius part about these plastic holders is that you can simply drop in a lit joint and it will burn out quickly—without you having to butt it out and lose weed. The tubes can also be odourless when the top is sealed, meaning you or your pandemic bubble won’t smell that joint you’re carrying around.
4. Safety.
During this time when blunts should not be shared, it’s good to know where you get your goods, and they have the government health stamp-of-approval. Machine-rolled joints are much safer than your sister or best friend’s saliva on the paper. Health Canada provides strict policies on how prerolls should be manufactured. Take this cautionary tale from south of the border: The Marijuana Regulatory Agency in Michigan recently recalled more than 3,000 prerolls from dispensaries because an employee at a Bay City factory licked a pre-roll. Machine-rolled J’s only, please.
5. Experimenting.
If you ever wanted to try out a new herb or you’re new to the marijuana market, pre-rolled blunts are ideal as they come in small packages, and there’s a variety of strains to enjoy.
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By Jay Lin, a freelance cannabis writer based in British Columbia.