By Rebecca Victoria Olmos | TheCannifornian.com Correspondent

Among the plethora of ways to consume cannabis, smoking a good ol’ fashion joint continues to be one of the top preferred modes of consumption for cannabis consumers. In 2020 sales of prerolls in the US increased by 59%, according to a study done by Custom Cones USA. The number of new preroll brands that entered the market also increased, with almost 40% of them considering themselves brand new.

With so many new options on the market, how do you narrow it down to the right preroll for you?

First, what are prerolls?

Prerolls are pre-rolled, pre-packaged joints. Super convenient and straightforward. You can skip the grinding, packing, rolling, and licking process and go straight to lighting up your doobie.

Why would you choose a prerolled joint versus rolling your own?

Prerolls have a terrible reputation for being filled with shake, or lesser quality flower that falls from the cannabis plant. This negative standing has changed over the years as the adult-use cannabis market has expanded. Now, dispensary menus have both budget-friendly shake-filled prerolls (which can still be delightful) and those filled with top-shelf quality flower. Add that to their convenience, and it’s easy to see why prerolls have become the favorable dispensary option.

Pre-roll options

Choosing your preroll comes down to personal preference. Here are a few of the different options you can find your prerolls in:

• Size: minis, half-gram, full-gram, and even up to a single 2 gram.
• Quantities: You can buy them as a single joint or in packs of 2 to 14 pieces.
• Regular or infused: Some have only have flower. Others are infused with different types of concentrates like distillate, kief, or shatter.
• Brands: Women-owned, minority-owned, equity brands, house brands, environmentally friendly brands are all different things to consider when spending your money.
• Materials used: Hemp papers, hemp wraps, rice paper, Raw papers, glass crutches, paper crutches, glass tips, recyclable packaging.

And of course

• Strain or effect: Indica, sativa, or hybrid? Or maybe you’re looking for a classic Jack Herer or OG Kush.

If you get overwhelmed, it never hurts to default to your budget or budtender’s choice. It’s always best practice to scope out the dispensary menu before you arrive.

1936 brought about the inception of reefer madness which portrayed cannabis as being responsible for the degradation of humanity, bringing about borderline psychosis to those who decided to use the plant. For the decades following, cannabis was portrayed as s a “gateway drug” meaning it acts as a starting point to an inevitable fall into heavy drug use and addiction. Recently, a Toronto based research group published a study showing the exact opposite, cannabis can in fact serve as an “exit drug”.

 A large prospective study of 1,145 Canadian medical cannabis patients observed, self-reported opioid use and quality of life while using cannabis or cannabis products. The methods used to record the data included a full range cannabis use inventory check list, which collected a wide scope of data regarding the cannabis usage of the patients as well the World Health Organization Quality of Life Short Form, which is used to quantify pain levels along with general health and overall wellness metrics. An in-depth prescription drug questionnaire was also implemented to gather drug usage data.

28% of the 1,145 patients reported opioid use at the beginning of the study, while only 11% percent reported usage of these drugs at the end of the six-month observational period, more than a 50% percent decrease in use. Among those who continued the use of opioids the quantity of prescription drug use decreased by 78%. These data points are quite telling and imply that cannabis use among those using opioids may lead to great steps in the decreased usage of potentially harmful chemicals.

It seems to be quite clear that cannabis implementation with chronic pain patients can lead to an overall better quality of life by serving to decrease or cease opioid use entirely as a form of treatment. The overall improvement of public health is still left to be seen.