The Straight Toke - THE Marijuana Blog

Julius:
The end of a joint... what do I call it? It can't be a roach-end without a roach, can it? It's not a cigarette, so it can't be a butt. So what do I call it? Thanks.

First, let's go over the terms, since their usage (and even their definition) varies from place to place.

Roach can mean either the end of a spliff or joint after most of it has been smoked or a small rolled-up piece of paper put into the end of a spliff to act as a rudimentary mouthpiece (and to prevent collapse).

In the United States, "roach" is most commonly used in the first sense of the word -- in reference to the remainder of a joint. In some other countries (and in some parts of the US), "roach" is only ever used in the second sense of the word.

Given the phrasing of your question, I assume that you're using the second definition of "roach". You can indeed have a roach-end without a roach -- the phrase "roach-end" simply refers to the end of the spliff into which you would place a roach, so technically a roach need not be present to refer to it as such (although it might be a bit confusing when it's not.)

Hope that answers your question. If not, write back and let me know.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Q/A, Terminology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.