Blunt Talk on “Blunts”: The Increasingly Popular Tobacco Product That Is Potentially Exacerbating Tobacco-Related Health Disparities

Abstract

A “blunt” is a hollowed-out cigar/cigarillo from which much of the loose tobacco has been removed, and the remaining tobacco wrapper filled with cannabis. Although blunts contain significant levels of tobacco/nicotine, they are often treated as if they were exclusive cannabis products and omitted from surveys of tobacco products. Whereas the prevalence of virtually all other tobacco products is on the decline in the USA, available data suggest that the prevalence of blunt smoking is not — and in fact, it may be increasing. Blunts are most frequently used by people who self-identify as Black. As a result of misperceptions and perhaps biases, there is a dearth of scientific investigation, hence knowledge, surrounding the health effects associated with blunt smoking. Co-use of tobacco and cannabis has been reported to have additive and even synergistic adverse health effects. Lack of investigations into the health effects of tobacco products most frequently used by Black people may contribute to tobacco-related health disparities. We argue that the scientific and public health communities must treat blunts as the potentially lethal tobacco product that they are, studying their prevalence and use patterns, and investigating their adverse health effects, both short and long term.