Roach Clips: The Tool Built for the Last Inch of a Joint
Every joint ends the same way. The paper burns down to a stub too short to hold, the ember creeps toward your fingertips, and the last inch still has a few hits in it.
That stub is the roach, and the roach clip was made for it. It is one of the oldest pieces of gear in any head shop, and federal law even names it.
Key takeaways
- A roach clip holds the last bit of a joint, the roach, so you can finish it without burning your fingers.
- Puffs from the end of a joint carry more cannabinoids, and a 1991 study found the second half delivered more tar too.
- Crutches are rolls of thin card at the mouth end, and they shape a joint without filtering the smoke.
- Federal law bans selling or shipping roach clips, but it exempts people authorized by state law, such as adults 21 and older in California.
The roach and the clip that holds it
A roach is the butt of a joint, the part left once most of it has been smoked. So what is a roach clip? Merriam-Webster defines it as a metal clip that resembles tweezers and is used by marijuana smokers to hold a roach, and it dates the term to 1968.
The slang roach is older. The Online Etymology Dictionary records the meaning "butt of a marijuana cigarette" by 1938, perhaps from its resemblance to the insect, though it allows that the word may have another source entirely. In the UK, roach usually means the cardboard mouthpiece rolled into a joint, which many Americans call a crutch or a tip.
Head shops and the clip's 1970s boom
Roach clips spread with the head shops. Those shops emerged from the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s, and the Psychedelic Shop on Haight Street in San Francisco, often cited as the first in the US, opened on January 3, 1966. Business grew fast. By 1977, paraphernalia was bringing in $250 million annually, historian Emily Dufton writes in Smithsonian Magazine, a sum she puts at over a billion dollars today.
One of the makers was Garry Knox Bennett, later famous as a furniture maker, who started selling peace symbols and roach clips in 1965. "I was the roach clip mogul of the world for a while," he told the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art in 2002, recalling a time when he had 65 employees making them.
The backlash came quickly. In the mid-1970s, the sale of drug paraphernalia was outlawed in many places, and in 1982 the Supreme Court upheld an Illinois village ordinance that required a license to sell items designed or marketed for use with illegal cannabis or drugs, roach clips among them.
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Start a QuizCommon roach clip types
Roach clip types run from surgical steel to handmade jewelry. In our experience, each one suits a different kind of smoker.
Alligator clips
The classic. A spring-loaded alligator clip with serrated jaws grips a roach tight, costs very little and fits on a keychain. Its short handle keeps your fingers only an inch or so from the ember, though.
Hemostats and locking forceps
Hemostats lock shut with a ratchet, so the roach stays put without any squeezing, and their long handles keep the heat well away from your hand. In our experience, a hemostat is the most practical clip for a roach smoked down to almost nothing.
Tweezers and needle-nose pliers
Household stand-ins do the job when nothing else is around. Tweezers need steady pressure the whole time, though, and pliers can crush a roach flat.
Jewelry and ceramic holders
Some roach clips double as jewelry, such as brass pendants or earrings with a small clip at the end. Others are ceramic or stone pieces with a hole through them, and the roach slots into the hole instead of being clamped.
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Roach weed and the last few puffs
Roach weed, the flower and resin left in the last inch of a joint, has a reputation for hitting harder, and the research mostly supports it. In a 2023 smoking-machine study, cannabinoid content in the inhaled smoke increased as smoking progressed, and the sections of the joint closer to the mouth held more cannabinoids than those near the lit end. A separate test at Delic Labs in Vancouver, reported by Scientific American, found the highest concentration of cannabinoids per puff came toward the end of the joint, whatever the grind size.
The stronger hit comes with more tar. In 1991, UCLA lung researcher Donald Tashkin and colleagues found that the second half of a marijuana cigarette delivered significantly more THC, tar and carbon monoxide to the smoker's lungs than the first half, he later told MEL Magazine.
In our experience, resin-heavy flower leaves the stickiest roaches, and two of ours are known for their resin:
- RS11 x Banana OG, an RS11 and Banana OG cross at up to 32% THC, shows exceptional trichome development and resin coverage across all surfaces, its page says.
- Skunk #1, an Afghan, Acapulco Gold and Colombian Gold cross at 26% THC, grows large, resinous buds coated in a shimmering layer of trichomes.
Clip or crutch, side by side
The roach clip vs crutch question comes up because both deal with the mouth end of a joint. In Europe, in certain Commonwealth nations and more recently in North America, joints typically carry a filter or a bit of rolled thin cardboard as a mouthpiece, commonly referred to as the crutch, filter, or roach. The crutch goes in when you roll, and the clip comes out at the end.
| How they differ | Roach clip | Crutch |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A metal clip, hemostat or other holder | A strip of thin card rolled into a tube |
| When you use it | At the end, once the joint is too short to hold | From the start, rolled into the mouth end |
| Main job | Keeps your fingers away from the ember | Keeps the end firm and open, and stops loose flower from reaching your lips |
| Can you reuse it? | Yes, for years | No, it goes out with the roach |
| Does it filter the smoke? | No | No, it is an open tube |
| How they differ | What it is | When you use it | Main job | Can you reuse it? | Does it filter the smoke? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roach clip | A metal clip, hemostat or other holder | At the end, once the joint is too short to hold | Keeps your fingers away from the ember | Yes, for years | No |
| Crutch | A strip of thin card rolled into a tube | From the start, rolled into the mouth end | Keeps the end firm and open, and stops loose flower from reaching your lips | No, it goes out with the roach | No, it is an open tube |
Neither one cleans the smoke. A crutch contains no filter material at all, and even carbon-packed joint filter tips cannot touch the particles that carry both tar and cannabinoids. In our experience, the two work best together: a crutch gives the clip something firm to grip, and the clip lets you smoke the joint down to the card.
Paraphernalia laws, then and now
Federal law names roach clips outright. Under 21 U.S.C. 863, they count as drug paraphernalia, meaning objects used to hold burning material, such as a marijuana cigarette, that has become too small or too short to be held in the hand. The same section makes three acts federal crimes, each punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine:
- Selling or offering roach clips for sale
- Shipping them by mail or across state lines
- Importing or exporting them
The rule began as the Mail Order Drug Paraphernalia Control Act, passed in 1986 as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, and in 1994 the Supreme Court upheld a conviction under it in Posters 'N' Things v. United States, a case over pipes, bongs, scales and roach clips.
Possession falls under state law, and the federal ban exempts anyone authorized by local, state or federal law to make, possess or distribute such items. California wrote its accessories law with that exemption in mind, letting adults 21 and older possess, use and make cannabis accessories. New York also makes cannabis paraphernalia lawful for adults 21 and older and says it is not contraband. In states without legal adult use, paraphernalia is still an offense. In Louisiana, possessing marijuana paraphernalia for personal use carries a $100 fine on a first conviction and $500 on a second.
Using a roach clip without burned fingers
In our experience, a clip works best when the joint is built for it:
- Roll a crutch into the mouth end, so the clip has something firm to grip later.
- Smoke the joint by hand until the ember starts to warm your fingertips.
- Clamp the clip across the crutch or the very end of the roach, gently enough to keep it round.
- Take short, slow pulls, since the last inch burns hot and carries the most tar.
- Stub the roach out in an ashtray, let the clip cool and soak it in isopropyl alcohol to lift the resin.
A small clip for the last inch
A roach clip holds the last inch of a joint so your fingers stay clear of the ember, and that last inch delivers more cannabinoids and more tar than the start. Clips range from alligator clips and hemostats to brass jewelry, and a crutch rolled in at the start gives any of them a firm grip. Federal law still bans selling and shipping them, with an exemption for people authorized by state law, such as adults 21 and older in California and New York.
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