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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, shag, marijuana or other herbs. They are most commonly made with wood pulp, hemp, flax, or rice as a base material. 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 the finest possible cigarette. Rolling papers are also called skins or rollys, 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. The latest rolling papers are unbleached with a translucent brown color. These unbleached papers provide a more natural smoking experience similar to using a natural tobacco.

Popularity

Rolling papers have experienced a resurgence of popularity because in many countries it is increasingly less expensive to roll your own cigarette than to purchase a machine-made one. Tax policy is the key reason for the cost differential. In addition, people who roll their own cigarettes can customize the cigarette to any shape, size, and form they choose. Rolling papers are sold in sizes 70mm - 110mm with widths ranging from 1.0 inch to 1.5 inches.

In the United States, the Tobacconist Magazine has called roll-your-own the tobacco industry's fastest growing segment. It estimates that 2-4% of US cigarette smokers, or approximately 1.5 million people, make their own cigarettes. Many of these smokers have switched in response to increasingly high taxes on manufactured cigarettes.

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".

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 (cost is a key factor here). 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.

Consumers 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 leave) in 2006 despite complaints from manufacturers.

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 cartridge.
• Has been used 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.

Noted Brands

• Abadie- Well Known French brand in a pink pack (France 1840)
• Bambu- Classic Brand of rolling papers made in Argentina & Spain. (Spain 1764, moved to Argentina 1990)
• Bugler- Top-selling low-end brand. Popular in US prison system.
• JOB (France)- Founded in 1834. 1st rolling paper in booklet form. Famous for iconic art nouveau advertising posters
• Juicy Jay's - Top selling flavored paper brand, notably featured as part of the plot line in Grandma's Boy movie
• Laramie- notable for tie-in with Simpsons cigarette brand
• Rizla- (France): 18th century origins. Now 75% of the UK rolling paper market
• Pay-Pay - Oldest brand of rolling papers in the world (From 1703 Spain)
• Zig-Zag- (France) 1st interleaved brand (hence the name). Gold medal at 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris.

There are many collectors of cigarette rolling papers, especially in Europe. One of the largest online collections is at Rollingpapers.net.

The only magazine dedicated to Rolling Papers and RYO is Roll Your Own Magazine.

The Spanish manufacturer Miquel Y Costas (maker of Smoking brand and Bambu) was recently convicted of using illegal cancer causing carcinogens in their cigarette paper; http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/142583/0/papel/fumar/cancer/

References

1. Nick Jones, "Skinning Up" in "Spliffs: A Celebration of Cannabis Culture", Collins & Brown, 2003: pp. 94-133.
2. Iver Peterson, "Roll-your-owns cuts taxes", New York Times, October 14, 2002.
3. Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) 2000 Online fact sheet
4. BBC, "Smoker poll reveals roll-ups myth", May 30, 2006 Online copy
5. "Cigarette Consumption", Thailand Health Promotion Institute PDF document
6. Ministry of Health, "Seeing through the Smoke: Tobacco Monitoring in New Zealand", Public Health Intelligence: Occasional Bulletin (26), 2005 PDF document
7. Tom Loftus, "Tax Hike Targets Cigarette Papers", Courier Journal, April 17, 2006 Online document
8. Johnny Bates and Mike Cumpston, "Percussion Pistols and Revolvers: History, Performance and Practical Use", iUniverse, 2005: Pg.75.
9. Anthoony Cavender, "Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia", University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill: 2003, pg. 98.
10. Meghan Daum, "Music is my Bag", Harper's Magazine, March 2000.

See also

• Tobacco
• Tobacco smoking
• Shag
• Blunt

• Cigarettes
• Paper
• Cannabis
• Drug paraphernalia