Hemp Cigarettes vs. Tobacco Cigarettes: 5 Differences

Not all cigarettes are made equal. There are even significant differences between various types of tobacco cigarettes, but that’s nothing compared to the profound dissimilarities between cigarettes that contain hemp and cigarettes that contain tobacco. Learn more about CBD cigarettes, and discover the five major differences between hemp cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes.

What are CBD cigarettes?

CBD cigarettes are pre-rolled smokable products that contain CBD-rich hemp flower. Some CBD cigarettes closely resemble tobacco cigarettes, and others look more like cannabis joints.

Regardless of their diverse appearances, all CBD cigarettes serve a singular purpose: to make smoking hemp convenient for everyone and familiar if you already smoke tobacco cigarettes. Other types of smokable hemp products require bongs, vaporizers, or other types of smoking equipment, but all you need to enjoy a CBD cigarette is a match or a lighter.

Smoking tobacco often causes a psychological addiction that’s just as powerful as the chemical addiction provided by nicotine. Since CBD cigarettes are similar in shape and size to tobacco cigarettes, they smoothly take the place of tobacco cigarettes while providing entirely different effects.

What types of CBD cigarettes are there?

CBD cigarettes vary widely in both type and quality. The two major types of CBD cigarettes are hemp smokes that contain filters and look highly similar to tobacco cigarettes and pre-rolls that contain crutches and look similar to cannabis joints.

Each of these CBD cigarette varieties can be either high-quality and low-quality. The highest-quality CBD cigarettes contain indoor-grown, organic CBD flower. On the other end of the spectrum, some low-quality CBD cigarettes might contain low-potency hemp biomass that has been sprayed with CBD isolate.

What are CBD cigarettes good for?

Aside from their convenience, the primary advantage of CBD cigarettes is the fast activation time and high bioavailability of smokable hemp products. According to some estimates, inhaling CBD might provide bioavailability as high as 56% while CBD tinctures and other orally ingested hemp products only provide 13-19% bioavailability.

As a result, you can use more of the CBD you ingest when you inhale this cannabinoid, and since inhaling CBD bypasses your liver and delivers this cannabinoid directly into your nervous system, CBD cigarettes also provide fast, profound effects. Even when inhaled, however, CBD remains fully non-intoxicating, allowing you to enjoy a Cannabis sativa experience that’s free of anxiety, paranoia, and abuse potential. 

Why are hemp cigarettes better than tobacco cigarettes?

Let’s cover the top five reasons that hemp cigarettes are superior to tobacco cigarettes:

1. No obnoxious odor

Smoking tobacco destroys your sense of smell, so tobacco smokers often end up immune to the noxious aroma that fills rooms and outdoor spaces whenever they light up. Even if they can’t smell or taste it anymore, however, the smoke that tobacco users exhale smells incredibly foul, and as anyone who’s ever been around a smoker before knows, the stale, musty aroma of tobacco smoke sticks to clothes, walls, car upholstery, and practically anything else it touches.

Lighting up a hemp cigarette, on the other hand, doesn’t release any immediately unpleasant smells or leave any lingering obnoxious odors behind. In fact, the terpenes in hemp flower have unique aromatic properties that can make hemp smoke smell downright delicious. Instead of pushing friends and strangers away with the horrific smell of tobacco smoke, draw people in with the inviting aroma of burning hemp.

2. No abuse potential

Like most stimulants, nicotine is highly addictive. This substance doesn’t just make you psychologically dependent on smoking cigarettes. It physically rewires your brain to require regular doses of nicotine, and it can take years to help your nervous system recover from nicotine addiction. It would be one thing if this addictive substance was good for you, but in reality, nicotine addiction chains you to tobacco, which harms your body in dozens of ways. 

CBD, on the other hand, is non-addictive, and this non-intoxicating cannabinoid does not appear to have any abuse potential. In fact, CBD has been studied for its potential to help with addictions to other substances.  

3. Better effects

If you’ve ever smoked tobacco, you know how nicotine affects your system:

• First, nicotine provides a powerful rush that can make novice smokers feel weak at the knees
• After around 20 minutes, this rush wears off, commonly leaving behind jitters or a violent need to use the restroom
• Approximately an hour after you smoke a tobacco cigarette, you’re burdened with a compelling urge to smoke another, restarting this vicious cycle

Looked at objectively, why would anyone ever want to smoke tobacco? This substance doesn’t provide any benefits, and the effects of nicotine aren’t even that long-lasting or enjoyable. The sad reality is that chemical rewiring in the brain makes nicotine seem more enjoyable than it really is.

CBD couldn’t be more different than nicotine when it comes to the effects this non-intoxicating cannabinoid provides. Instead of acting as a stimulant, CBD primarily interacts with neuroreceptors that govern serotonin production and inflammation, and CBD users usually report that this cannabinoid has mild, relaxing effects.

An hour after you smoke a CBD cigarette, you won’t be overtaken by a sudden urge to smoke another. Instead, you’ll still be enjoying the relaxing after-effects of inhaling CBD-rich hemp smoke into your lungs.

4. No dangerous additives

Scientists have identified more than 500 additives that are commonly present in tobacco cigarettes. Some of these additives have flame-acceleration properties while others act as preservatives. While nicotine is harmful enough on its own, many of the negative effects of tobacco smoking are caused by additives in cigarettes, not nicotine itself.

High-quality hemp cigarettes, however, won’t contain any additives. They’ll be rolled in raw, organic hemp papers, and they’ll contain organically cultivated, CBD-rich hemp flower. If the hemp flower in CBD cigarettes is grown indoors, it also can’t contain any agricultural contaminants, further increasing the purity of hemp cigarettes vs. tobacco cigarettes.

5. CBD doesn’t have any significant side effects

At this point, everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last five decades is aware of the carcinogenic properties of tobacco cigarettes. Even when it isn’t consumed in the form of tobacco leaf, however, nicotine is toxic to your cardiovascular system, and this addictive stimulant can increase your likelihood of heart attack and stroke.

CBD, on the other hand, does not appear to have any significant side effects. This non-intoxicating cannabinoid often makes users sleepy, and it can also cause mild gastrointestinal distress when ingested orally. Early reports that CBD might be toxic to your liver, however, are unproven and have been largely debunked, and scientists have yet to discover any compelling reasons to warn against using CBD.

If you’re still concerned about the potential detrimental effects of taking smoke of any kind into your lungs, you’re free to use CBD vape products. Unlike vapes that contain nicotine, high-quality CBD vapes consisting of pure hemp flower extract don’t contain any substances that are known to cause cardiovascular harm.

Smoke cigarettes the right way with CBD

Cigarette smokers have been on the hunt for viable alternatives for decades. While “light” cigarettes are just as harmful and common smoking cessation aids are unsatisfying, CBD cigarettes fill the psychological void left behind by tobacco cigarettes without causing any significant negative effects. With so many strains of CBD flower available in cigarette form, you’ll never get bored, and your body and mind will thank you for replacing the nerve-wracking, abuse-inducing effects of nicotine with the relaxing, non-addictive benefits of CBD.