5 Herbs You Can Smoke That Are Not Cannabis

The other day, swapping war stories with a mate, he told me that smoking chamomile was how he managed to quit tobacco.

It was not the first time I had heard of someone using other herbs to kill the cravings or drop the bad smoke, so I got to work.

Today I am bringing you an article about five herbs you can smoke that are not cannabis.

5 herbs you can smoke that are not cannabis

Let us be honest: nothing touches the holy plant. But if what you are into is putting out smoke and you want to quit tobacco, or you simply cannot get hold of any weed, do not despair.

After the 2008 ban that stopped people smoking tobacco in coffeeshops, new alternatives started popping up for mixing with cannabis.

These herbal smoking blends give off a pleasant aroma when they are dried and burned. They are not well known in developed countries, since we have plenty of tobacco and plenty of weed, but in other parts of the world they get used a lot.

In cultures in far flung places, smoking blends are used as a vehicle for communicating with deities during religious ceremonies.

And not only that: they also show up regularly in the herbal tradition of those places. After digging around a bit I saw the subject had legs, so I did some research to recommend you the best ones. Hope you like them.

Mint and spearmint

Mint is one of the most rewarding of the bunch. Its smoke is fresh, clean and with a sweet edge, and it is the least scratchy on the whole list, so it tends to be the gateway for anyone coming off tobacco.

It is also the easiest to get hold of: you will find it in any market or growing all by itself in a pot.

Mullein leaf

It grows easily and can turn invasive if you leave it unattended. It is fairly common in Spain, so you have no excuse not to go and harvest some.

It is one of the herbs with the longest track record in traditional European herbalism, where it has been used in infusions for centuries. Its smoke is very light and you can light it without barely noticing, although it has little flavour of its own, so it works better in a blend than on its own.

Red raspberry leaf

It is the most studied plant of all the ones on this list. We are not about to discover the berries now, but hardly anyone talks about the leaf, which is the part used here.

It gives a mild smoke with a slightly fruity backnote. The raspberry is like the pig: nothing goes to waste.

Virginia skullcap

This perennial herb belongs to the mint family, although its profile is pretty different: more herbal and less fresh.

It is one of those that turn up regularly in the commercial blends you find in herbal shops, usually alongside others rather than as the base.

Passionflower

It is a plant that grows wild mainly in the United States, and around here it gets used mostly as a garden ornament.

The aftertaste of the smoke is a mix of soft and pretty pronounced earthy notes. Welcome to the future.

And if what you are after is smoking without the high?

There is a middle ground between these herbs and good old cannabis: CBD flowers. They roll and taste like the weed you are used to, but without the psychoactive effect of THC.

If you are coming off tobacco and what you want is to keep the ritual without the high, it makes a lot more sense than smoking raspberry leaf. And if you would rather have something more concentrated, take a look at CBD hash.

To roll them you will need the usual: rolling papers, tips and a grinder.

Conclusion

I have smoked the passionflower and the mint, and I can promise you they beat a cigarette.

If there is ever a worldwide blackout and the tobacco and cannabis supply gets cut off, I would definitely be smoking these plants.

One note: smoking any plant means inhaling smoke and combustion particles. None of these herbs is a treatment and none of them replaces a doctor.

You might also like The Smoker's Guide, where the rest of the articles live.