A roll-your-own (RYO) cigarette, also called a handrolled cigarette, is a cigarette made from loose tobacco (usually a shag cut) and rolling paper. Factory-made cigarettes are called industrial or tailor-made cigarettes.[1][2]
Rolling tobacco, or cigarette tobacco, is the primary tobacco used for RYO cigarettes. It is generally packaged in pouches.[3]
After 2009, the United States federal tax rate on RYO tobacco was raised from $1.0969 per pound to $24.78 per pound.[4] This increase has caused many people to switch to using pipe tobacco to make cigarettes, since the pipe tobacco tax rate was also increased, but only to $2.83 per pound.[5]
In Australia, loose tobacco was taxed less than manufactured cigarettes until September 2016.[6]
Cigarette rolling may be done either by hand of with a cigarette roller. It should not be confused with cigarette stuffer.
In Russia a special kind of self-rolled cigarette was in use, called "goat's leg" (Russian: козья ножка). A paper (commonly a newspaper paper) was rolled in a cone, which was bent in half in the middle and the wider part was filled with tobacco. In a way, it resembled a tobacco pipe.[7]
Relatively few smokers in the US, only 6.7%, actually roll their own cigarettes.[8] In contrast, this rate was 17.1% in Canada, 24.2% in Australia, and 28.4% in the UK.[8] Reasons for this difference include the generally lower price of traditional cigarettes in most states in the US compared to Canada and Europe.[8]
