Everyone knows of that local restaurant or deli that gives out boxes of matches for free. Free matches are great, but matches are really your lighter-of-last-resort when it comes to smoking weed. The three main reasons for this are:

Chemical Content Inconvenience Inaccuracy Inadequacy

Chemical Content

When the match first lights up at the red tip, those are chemicals burning.

If you take a drag on your joint with those first few seconds of match-flame, you're inhaling a combusted mixture of phosphorus, sulfur and potassium chlorate. You're probably wondering why you can't just wait for the red tip to burn off before dragging the match flame through your joint or bowl.

It's because the chemicals don't stop at the tip of the match. The wooden stick of the match is coated and soaked in a variety of chemicals to make sure that the match actually does burn past the igniter tip.

You wouldn't put any of these ingredients into your bowl or joint, so why would you want to risk smoking them just from the match you use to light up. For a joint smoker or a blunt smoker, you may only need one match to get it going. For a bowl or bong smoker, you need a fresh match for every pull - that's a lot of extra inhaled carcinogens.

Inconvenience

It's not just the chemicals in matches that are terrible! If you're an outdoor smoker, you're out of luck with matches. If they get wet - you're screwed. If there's a gust of wind - you're screwed. Beyond being bad for outdoor cannabis connoisseurs, matches are also inconvenient for indoor smokers too.

Match sticks break all the time when you're trying to light them, creating a fire hazard for anyone (especially if you're baked). Beyond this, the strike-on-box strip wears off after only a few matches have been lit. And after all this, when a match book or match box has run out - it's out. At least with your empty lighter you can give it a few hard shakes and get one last spark out of it!

If you've made it this far into the article and still need to be convinced why your matches should be kept for candles and not cannabis, there's more.

Inaccuracy

The inaccuracy of matches is unmatched (pun intended). Whether you happen to smoke bowls, rip bongs, or puff joints - you're likely to have the most inaccurate flame from a match.

(Photo Credit - Screengrab via Urban Dictionary)

As the match burns past the igniter tip, the flame only gets wider as it travels down the matchstick. This is great if you're trying to burn half of your joint off on the first drag, or you feel like sparking up the entire bowl you packed for your communal smoke-out. Usually, people hate when their joint gets canoed, or when their whole bowl pack is cherried before they'd like it to be.

(Photo Credit - Screengrab via Urban Dictionary)

Finally, what happens if you're into dabbing and all you have is matches? Nothing.

Inadequacy

Last but certainly not least, matches are inadequate. Whether you just rolled up a foot-long mega-joint (yes, 12" rolling papers exist), or you just happen to prefer dabs over herbs, a match is going to be completely and utterly inadequate in terms of fire-power. A measly little match will never light up your monster joint, and will certainly never get your dab nail hot enough to vaporize that glob of wax you have waiting.

Conclusion

I hope this was a useful and amusing guide to why you should never smoke weed with a match again! Don't let your friends go smoking phosphorus and fuel...be sure to share this article with them using the links below.