Out of Papers? 7 Ways to Smoke Weed When You’re in a Pinch

We’ve all been there. You’re ready to unwi­nd after a long day, you’ve got your stash—and of cour­se—no roll­ing pape­rs. Befo­re you text your buddy or make a midn­ight run to the corn­er store, let me share some crea­tive work­arou­nds I’ve disc­over­ed over my years in cann­abis cult­ure.

First, a quick real­ity check: smok­ing anyt­hing isn’t great for your lungs. Peri­od. But if you’re dete­rmin­ed to light up with­out pape­rs, I want you to do it as safe­ly as poss­ible. I’ve tried most of these meth­ods myse­lf (some out of curi­osit­y, othe­rs out of desp­erat­ion), and I’ll tell you what actu­ally works.

1. The Apple Pipe: Natu­re’s Perf­ect Smok­ing Devi­ce

My go-to pape­rles­s solu­tion is the humb­le apple pipe. It’s prac­tica­lly a rite of pass­age in cann­abis cult­ure, and for good reas­on.

Here’s how I make one:

• Remo­ve the stem
• Use a pen to poke a hole from the top (where the stem was) half­way down
• Make anot­her hole from the side that conn­ects with your first hole
• Opti­onal: crea­te a third hole on the oppo­site side as a carb

The first time I made an apple pipe was duri­ng a camp­ing trip when my frie­nd knoc­ked our only pack of pape­rs into the lake. Not only did it work beau­tifu­lly, but the slig­ht apple flav­or comp­leme­nted the eart­hy notes of our stra­in. Plus, you can eat the evid­ence afte­rwar­d (minus the burnt parts, obvi­ousl­y).

Other frui­ts and vege­tabl­es work too—carr­ots, pota­toes, and pears can all be tran­sfor­med into sing­le-use pipes using the same tech­niqu­e. Each impa­rts its own subt­le flav­or to your smok­ing expe­rien­ce.

2. Empty Ciga­rett­es: The Quick Swap

If you or some­one arou­nd you smok­es ciga­rett­es, this meth­od is super stra­ight­forw­ard. I lear­ned this trick from my room­mate in coll­ege:

1. Gent­ly roll a ciga­rett­e betw­een your fing­ers to loos­en the toba­cco
2. Twist and pull to remo­ve the filt­er (opti­onal but reco­mmen­ded)
3. Care­full­y empty out the toba­cco
4. Pack with grou­nd cann­abis
5. Twist the end clos­ed

The paper burns even­ly, thou­gh you might taste a hint of toba­cco. I usua­lly remo­ve the filt­er since it can block some of the THC, but leav­ing it in makes for a smoo­ther hit.

Worth noti­ng: ciga­rett­e pape­rs cont­ain addi­tive­s to cont­rol burn­ing that you woul­dn’t find in regu­lar roll­ing pape­rs. While conv­enie­nt in a pinch, this isn’t ideal for regu­lar use since you’re inha­ling these addi­tion­al chem­ical­s.

3. Corn Husks: The OG Roll­ing Paper

Befo­re comm­erci­al roll­ing pape­rs exis­ted, peop­le used what natu­re prov­ided. Corn husks have been used in Mexi­co and Jama­ica for gene­rati­ons, and they work surp­risi­ngly well.

Last summ­er, I tried this after a barb­ecue when we had corn on the cob but no pape­rs. I:

• Peel­ed off an inner layer of husk (the thin­ner, the bett­er)
• Let it dry for about 20 minu­tes near the grill
• Trim­med it to size with scis­sors
• Roll­ed it up just like a regu­lar paper

The resu­lt? A slow-burn­ing, even smoke with a subt­le sweet taste. The natu­ral fibe­rs in corn husks make them stur­dy enou­gh to hold your grou­nd flow­er with­out tear­ing.

4. Natu­ral Alte­rnat­ives: Other Plant-Based Roll­ing Mate­rial­s

The trad­itio­n of using plant mate­rial­s exte­nds beyo­nd corn husks. Thro­ugho­ut hist­ory and acro­ss cult­ures, peop­le have used vari­ous plant fibe­rs when comm­erci­al pape­rs weren’t avai­labl­e:

• Bamb­oo memb­rane: The thin inner layer of bamb­oo can be dried and used simi­larl­y to pape­rs
• Rose peta­ls: When care­full­y dried and ligh­tly mois­tene­d befo­re roll­ing, these crea­te a frag­rant, slow-burn­ing wrap
• Dried bana­na leav­es: Used trad­itio­nall­y in Cari­bbea­n and Latin Amer­ican cult­ures
• Tree bark: Cert­ain thin, pape­ry barks can work in extr­eme situ­atio­ns, thou­gh they’re hard­er to work with

These natu­ral alte­rnat­ives gene­rall­y burn more slow­ly than comm­erci­al pape­rs, which some users pref­er. Howe­ver, they can be more diff­icul­t to roll and may requ­ire prac­tice to mast­er.

5. Grav­ity Bong: The Heavy Hitt­er

When I was in my early twen­ties and perp­etua­lly broke, the grav­ity bong (or “buck­et”) was our savi­or. It’s not subt­le, but it’s effe­ctiv­e.

You’ll need:

• A plas­tic bott­le with the bott­om cut off
• A buck­et or sink fill­ed with water
• A small metal bowl piece (or in a real pinch, alum­inum foil, thou­gh this is not ideal from a heal­th pers­pect­ive)

The phys­ics of it crea­tes a vacu­um that pulls a conc­entr­ated hit into the bott­le. Fair warn­ing: this meth­od hits HARD. My first expe­rien­ce with a grav­ity bong had me coug­hing for what felt like an eter­nity, foll­owed by an inte­nse high that last­ed for hours.

If maki­ng a grav­ity bong, try to avoid heat­ing alum­inum foil dire­ctly, as this can rele­ase harm­ful comp­ound­s. A small metal bowl piece from a regu­lar pipe works much bett­er if you have acce­ss to one. Also, never use plas­tic bott­les repe­ated­ly for this purp­ose—the heat can cause the plas­tic to degr­ade and rele­ase toxi­ns.

6. Gum Wrap­pers: The Conv­enie­nce Store Solu­tion

In a real pinch, cert­ain gum wrap­pers can work as make­shif­t pape­rs. The trick is find­ing the right kind and prep­arin­g them prop­erly.

Here’s my meth­od:

1. Find gum with paper-foil comb­inat­ion wrap­pers (like Wrig­ley’s or Trid­ent)
2. Care­full­y sepa­rate the thin paper layer from the foil back­ing
3. Use only the paper port­ion, disc­ardi­ng the foil
4. Let it dry comp­lete­ly if there’s any mois­ture
5. Roll as you would with regu­lar pape­rs, thou­gh be extra gent­le as they’re deli­cate

The paper is thin enou­gh to burn prop­erly, and some­time­s the suga­ry resi­due even helps it stick.

I’ve used this meth­od exac­tly once, duri­ng a road trip thro­ugh rural areas where find­ing a prop­er smoke shop was impo­ssib­le. It wasn’t pret­ty, but it got the job done.

Some peop­le also sugg­est using thin trac­ing paper, thou­gh make sure it’s high-qual­ity and free of any chem­ical trea­tmen­ts. The key with any paper alte­rnat­ive is ensu­ring it’s not trea­ted with chem­ical­s that rele­ase toxic fumes when burn­ed.

7. Hot Kniv­es: The Old Scho­ol Meth­od

This tech­niqu­e dates back deca­des and requ­ires:

• Two metal butt­er kniv­es
• A heat sour­ce (stove or torch)
• A small piece of cann­abis

You heat the kniv­es, sand­wich the weed betw­een them, and inha­le the risi­ng smoke. I tried this in coll­ege with a room­mate who swore by it. While it work­ed, I found it cumb­erso­me and pote­ntia­lly dang­erou­s with the hot metal. Not my favo­rite meth­od, but it has its devo­tees.

For the hot knife meth­od, a plas­tic bott­le with the bott­om cut off can be used as a funn­el to coll­ect the smoke, maki­ng it easi­er to inha­le. Howe­ver, keep the bott­le away from the hot kniv­es to avoid melt­ing plas­tic.

8. Book Pages: The Last Reso­rt

I’m incl­udin­g this beca­use peop­le do it, but with major cave­ats. If you’re truly desp­erat­e, the thin pages from a dict­iona­ry or Bible can work as roll­ing pape­rs. The best pages have mini­mal ink and are very thin.

Duri­ng a music fest­ival years ago, a guy in our camp roll­ed a joint using a page from “The Odys­sey.” It burn­ed unev­enly and defi­nite­ly wasn’t heal­thy (inha­ling ink is bad news), but in his words, “desp­erat­e times call for desp­erat­e meas­ures.”

If you abso­lute­ly must use book pages:

• Choo­se the thin­nest pages avai­labl­e 
• Sele­ct pages with mini­mal or no ink
• Remo­ve any hard edges or bind­ing glue
• Be aware that even unpr­inte­d paper often cont­ains chem­ical­s from the pape­rmak­ing proc­ess that aren’t meant to be inha­led when burn­ed

What to NEVER Use (I Lear­ned the Hard Way)

Thro­ugh pers­onal mist­akes and witn­essi­ng othe­rs’, I’ve comp­iled a list of abso­lute no-gos:

• Rece­ipt paper: Cont­ains BPA and other chem­ical­s that rele­ase toxic fumes when burn­ed. Ther­mal rece­ipt paper is coat­ed with deve­lope­rs and fixe­rs that rele­ase harm­ful comp­ound­s when heat­ed. I tried this once and the harsh chem­ical taste and head­ache afte­rwar­d were imme­diat­e red flags.
• Alum­inum foil or soda cans: Desp­ite their popu­lari­ty in DIY pipes, heat­ing alum­inum can rele­ase toxic comp­ound­s. When alum­inum is heat­ed to high temp­erat­ures, it can pote­ntia­lly rele­ase alum­inum part­icle­s and other comp­ound­s that you defi­nite­ly don’t want in your lungs. If you must use alum­inum foil (like in a grav­ity bong), mini­mize dire­ct cont­act with flame.
• Colo­red or heav­ily inked paper: The dyes and inks rele­ase harm­ful chem­ical­s when burn­ed. These cont­ain heavy meta­ls and other toxi­ns that vapo­rize when burn­ed. A frie­nd once used maga­zine paper and comp­lain­ed of chest pain afte­rwar­d.
• Plas­tic: Never, ever use plas­tic as a smok­ing devi­ce if heat will be appl­ied dire­ctly to it. When heat­ed, plas­tics rele­ase a cock­tail of toxic chem­ical­s incl­udin­g diox­ins, fura­ns, and styr­ene. The toxic fumes are seri­ousl­y dang­erou­s.
• Parc­hmen­t paper: While some peop­le reco­mmen­d it, most comm­erci­al parc­hmen­t paper is trea­ted with sili­cone or chem­ical­s that shou­ldn’t be inha­led.
• Rand­om pack­agin­g mate­rial­s: Straw wrap­pers, tamp­on wrap­pers, Alto­ids tin foil—these mate­rial­s are desi­gned for pack­agin­g, not smok­ing. They often cont­ain adhe­sive­s, plas­tici­zers, or other chem­ical­s that rele­ase toxic subs­tanc­es when burn­ed.

Safer Alte­rnat­ives Worth Cons­ider­ing

If you find your­self freq­uent­ly with­out pape­rs, maybe it’s time to expl­ore alte­rnat­ives:

Inve­st in a small glass pipe. They’re port­able, reus­able, and rela­tive­ly inex­pens­ive. I keep a small one in my back­pack for impr­ompt­u sess­ions.

Try a dry herb vapo­rize­r. They’re heal­thie­r than smok­ing and don’t requ­ire any acce­ssor­ies beyo­nd the devi­ce itse­lf. Vapo­rize­rs heat cann­abis to temp­erat­ures that rele­ase cann­abin­oids and terp­enes with­out comb­usti­on, pote­ntia­lly redu­cing resp­irat­ory risks asso­ciat­ed with smok­ing. My PAX has saved me coun­tles­s times when I’ve run out of pape­rs.

Cons­ider a one-hitt­er. These tiny, ciga­rett­e-look­ing pipes hold just enou­gh for a sing­le hit and are incr­edib­ly disc­reet and port­able.

Expl­ore edib­les. They take long­er to kick in but elim­inat­e smok­ing alto­geth­er. I’ve gott­en into maki­ng my own cann­abis-infu­sed honey that I can add to tea when I don’t feel like smok­ing.

Try tinc­ture­s or oils. These subl­ingu­al prod­ucts work quic­kly, are disc­reet, and avoid resp­irat­ory risks enti­rely.

Harm Redu­ctio­n Tips (From Some­one Who Cares)

What­ever meth­od you choo­se, keep these tips in mind:

• Don’t hold the smoke in your lungs for long peri­ods. It doesn’t get you high­er, just expo­ses your lungs to more tar. Rese­arch shows that near­ly all THC is abso­rbed with­in the first few seco­nds.
• Clean your smok­ing devi­ces regu­larl­y. That buil­dup isn’t just gross—it’s harm­ful to inha­le. Resin cont­ains conc­entr­ated carc­inog­ens and tar that you defi­nite­ly don’t want to be smok­ing.
• Stay hydr­ated! Cann­abis can cause dry mouth, and smok­ing of any kind can be dehy­drat­ing.
• If shar­ing with frie­nds, cons­ider indi­vidu­al mout­hpie­ces or at least wipe down shar­ed surf­aces with alco­hol.
• Cons­ider the cont­ext of your over­all cons­umpt­ion habi­ts. The occa­sion­al DIY smok­ing meth­od when you’re in a pinch is very diff­eren­t from regu­larl­y using pote­ntia­lly harm­ful mate­rial­s.
• Be mind­ful of pote­ncy, espe­cial­ly with meth­ods like grav­ity bongs that can deli­ver inte­nse hits. Start small, espe­cial­ly if you’re tryi­ng a new meth­od.

Unde­rsta­ndin­g the Heal­th Cont­ext

While this arti­cle focu­ses on pape­rles­s alte­rnat­ives in a pinch, it’s worth unde­rsta­ndin­g how these meth­ods comp­are to stan­dard cons­umpt­ion meth­ods from a heal­th pers­pect­ive:

• Vapi­ng flow­er (not oils): Gene­rall­y cons­ider­ed less harm­ful than smok­ing as it doesn’t invo­lve comb­usti­on, thou­gh rese­arch is still evol­ving. Rece­nt conc­erns about vapi­ng have most­ly cent­ered on vita­min E acet­ate in unre­gula­ted cart­ridg­es, not dry herb vapi­ng.
• Join­ts vs. Blun­ts: Trad­itio­nal roll­ing pape­rs have fewer addi­tive­s than cigar wraps used for blun­ts, which cont­ain toba­cco and addi­tion­al chem­ical­s.
• Dabb­ing: While it elim­inat­es plant matt­er comb­usti­on, the high temp­erat­ures and conc­entr­ated natu­re mean you’re gett­ing much high­er doses of cann­abin­oids, which can be over­whel­ming for inex­peri­ence­d users.
• DIY meth­ods: Gene­rall­y less ideal than purp­ose-made smok­ing devi­ces, as they may invo­lve mate­rial­s not desi­gned for smok­ing. The apple pipe stan­ds out as rela­tive­ly safer among DIY opti­ons since it uses untr­eate­d orga­nic mate­rial.

The next time you’re caug­ht with­out pape­rs, you’ve got opti­ons that don’t invo­lve sket­chy mate­rial­s or a late-night store run. Just reme­mber that these are temp­orar­y solu­tion­s—your lungs will thank you for using prop­er equi­pmen­t when poss­ible.

What’s your go-to meth­od when you’re out of pape­rs? I’m alwa­ys curi­ous to hear new ideas (thou­gh I might gent­ly steer you away from the dang­erou­s ones).