Are Pre-Roll Joints Good Quality?

Sometimes rolling up a joint can be a real hassle. Whether it's after a long, hard day at work, on the go without a grinder, pipe or vape available, sometimes it's just easier to be able to grab some pre-rolled weed for quick and instant access. 

These days, however, when people are at home more than ever and money might be tight, many are wondering whether pre-rolled joints are the best way to get their cannabis. As the legal cannabis industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar juggernaut, consumers have more ways to get their flower than ever before, including buying pre-rolls from their local dispensary. But are those the best way to go? How much do pre-rolls cost? Or is it cheaper to just buy some of your favorite strains of cannabis flower, a grinder and some rolling papers of your own?

Thankfully, Where's Weed has all the information and is well-prepared to bust the myths that so many stoners have when it comes to the standard dispensary pre-rolls.

What's In a Pre-Roll & How is It Made?

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For the seasoned stoner out there reading this, it's no secret how a joint is created. After all, it's been the go-to method of consumption for smokers everywhere for decades now. Joints have long been the easiest, most discreet, and easily sharable method. 

In today's modern, much more cannabis-friendly world, however, dispensaries are happy to do that grunt work for you. That's where those pre-rolled joint packs you've seen at your local dispensary come in! They're already rolled, pre-packaged, and ready to go. Seems like a no-brainer, right? 

Unfortunately, it's often not that simple. Unless the dispensary you're visiting specifically commits publicly to using ground, high-quality cannabis flower, you're more than likely not getting the best in some of those pre-rolled joints. 

The vast majority of pre-rolls are made from something budtenders call "shake," which is the little bits of leafy, green goodness that comes from a nug while it's being processed and packaged. In the best-case scenario, that means the dispensary is packing their joints with fresh, high-quality cannabis that they wouldn't have been able to otherwise sell. Those are some of the best pre-rolls out there. 

Other dispensaries and cannabis brands, on the other hand, take the spirit of reusing and recycling a bit too seriously. Those dispensaries will take the seeds, stems and otherwise non-ideal cannabis, grind it up, and hide all of those flaws under a rolling paper covering to sell to consumers. That's where pre-rolls get their poor reputation among experienced cannabis users. 

How To Tell If A Pre-Roll is Good Quality

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Unfortunately, the best way to know for sure what's in your joint is still to roll it yourself. With that in mind, however, there are still some tips and tricks you can use to tell if a pre-roll is worth your money or not. 

Do Your Research

While I'm sure everyone has walked into a dispensary without a clue what they wanted and has found something wonderful, doing a bit of research into what exactly you're looking for will go a long way to maximizing quality for your hard-earned dollars. 

Go ahead and look up your local dispensary with a site like Where's Weed, go to the dispensary website, and take a look at their menus. Many will have their pre-rolled joint packs from big-name brands listed there, and some will even have a section for their homemade pre-rolls. 

Ask Your Budtender

While this one might sound like a no-brainer, it's a set that many just skip while visiting their local dispensary. 

When it comes to cannabis, these guys are on the front lines every single day getting customer feedback and even personally handling the weed itself. If those pre-rolls in the display case are made in-house that budtender likely played some part in grinding, filling and rolling those joints. 

Trust Your Nose 

For the experienced cannabis users out there, it's pretty easy to tell the difference between dusty, old, dry weed full of stems and seeds and a joint packed with terpene-rich, fresh cannabis. 

If the joint you've purchased has an open-top to it, like the modern-day cigarette, go ahead and take a few sniffs. If the pre-roll has the tradition twisted together end, feel free to untwist one and see what's up! 

Cut It Open

If your nose isn't telling you enough, go ahead and slice open one of those pre-rolled joints and see exactly what you're working with. If you can, try just cutting the top half to save most of the joint from being wasted.

Most pre-rolled joint packs come with 4-5 per package, so sacrificing one to tell the quality of the remaining could prove to be a smart choice. After all, you can always reuse that already ground-up cannabis for a couple of bong hits or a few puffs from your favorite pipe! 

Understand You Get What You Pay For

It's important to be realistic with your standards from anything you purchase, but it's especially true for something like cannabis. 

After all, if you buy a $6 bottle of store-brand wine from your local grocery store you're not exactly expecting the stuff to be Napa Valley quality, right? Meanwhile, if you're paying $30 a glass at a fancy French restaurant, that better be some pretty good wine. 

The same applies to cannabis. If you're paying $7-$10 bucks for a pre-roll, it's unreasonable to expect you'll get the top-shelf bud in there. If you're paying $50 - $75 for a pack of pre-rolls, however, those joints better send you to space with their quality. Plain and simply put, the best pre-rolls are going to cost you a bit more money. In the long run, it will be cheaper to buy an eighth of high-quality bud and some papers to roll your own, but it's hard to beat the convenience of a good pre-roll.

Do you enjoy pre-rolls? Do you think they're worth checking out or do you just prefer to get some flower, some rolling papers and roll your joints yourself? Tell us about your experience with pre-rolls in the comments section below!