Joint is a slang term for a cigarette

Cigarette

A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...

 rolled using cannabis

Cannabis (drug)

Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium among industrialized countries, however brown paper, cigarettes with the tobacco removed, and newspaper are commonly used in developing countries

Developing country

A developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...

. Modern papers are now made from a wide variety of materials including rice, hemp, and flax. One of the newest innovations in joint-rolling technology has been the introduction of transparent cellulose

Cellulose

Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand β linked D-glucose units....

-based rolling papers.

A joint can range in size, typically containing between 250–750 mg

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

  net weight of cannabis and/or fillers.

Description

Joints consist of dried cannabis

Cannabis

Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...

 rolled inside a cylinder by hand or by a rolling machine. When smoked to the very bottom of the joint, it is often difficult to hold and is called a roach. The roach will often have an appreciable amount of THC from the accumulated resin. The roach can be held with finger nails, roach clips, roach pins, tweezers, or can be smoked using a bowl. Joints are often passed around a group circularly, and hoarding the joint (otherwise known as "grannying" or "bogarting ") is considered a serious breach of protocol.

Variations

Though all joints by convention contain cannabis, regional differences include the following:

• In Europe and certain Commonwealth nations
  Commonwealth of Nations
  The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
  
  , joints, 'B1's', or "spliffs", typically include a bit of cardboard or rolled business card in one end to serve as a mouthpiece. This is known as a filter or "roach
  Roach (drug culture)
  In Cannabis culture slang a roach is a term for the remainder of a joint or blunt after most has been smoked. Sometimes in the UK, Ireland and other European countries the term roach refers to the cardboard mouthpiece that is used at the end of the joint....
  
  ." In North America, "roach" usually means the smoked-down butt of a joint, which can be finished off in a pipe, rolled into the lighting-end of a new joint, or saved for a cumulative all-roach joint. Another common term used for the paper "filter" is a "crutch".

Name

Etymology

The word joint ultimately originated from French, where it is an adjective meaning "joined" (past participle of the verb joindre), derived in turn from Latin iunctus, past participle of iugare ("join"/"bind"/"yoke").

By 1821, "joint" had become an Anglo-Irish term for an annexe, or a side-room "joined" to a main room. By 1877, this had developed into U.S. slang for a (usually unsavory) "place, building, establishment," especially referring to an opium den

Opium den

An opium den was an establishment where opium was sold and smoked. Opium dens were prevalent in many parts of the world in the 19th century, most notably China, Southeast Asia, North America and France...

. By 1935, "joint" was being used to refer to the hypodermic needles used to inject heroin and other drugs at such establishments; this may have been influenced by the secondary meaning of "joint" in the sense of something done "in common" or shared. Its first usage in the sense of "marijuana cigarette" is dated to 1938.

Other terms

There are many slang terms mostly synonymous with the word joint, e.g. "fatty", which is used to describe a joint that contains an unusually large quantity of marijuana.

The term spliff is a West Indian word of Jamaican English

Jamaican English

Jamaican English or Jamaican Standard English is a dialect of English spoken in Jamaica. It melds parts of both American English and British English dialects, along with many aspects of Irish intonation...

origin, but has spread to several western countries, particularly Canada, the United States, and many countries in Europe. Its precise etymology is unknown, but it is attested as early as 1936. While Jamaican spliffs are generally conical in shape, those elsewhere tend to be cylindrical and of varying lengths. "Spliff" can also refer to various styles of cigarette rolled with a mixture of hashish and tobacco.

Footnotes