How much of your pre-roll is shake? More than you think.
We pulled 30 pre-rolls from machine-packed lines across three states and tore them apart.
Machine-packed pre-rolls are the fastest-growing segment of legal cannabis retail, and they are also the segment with the most opaque relationship to the flower on the label. We bought 30 pre-rolls from major brands across California, Massachusetts, and Illinois — five each from six brands — and disassembled them in a controlled environment.
Across all 30, the average shake-to-whole-flower ratio was 71% shake by weight. Two brands ran below 50% shake. Two brands ran above 90%. The rest clustered in the 60-80% range.
Shake is not, in itself, a problem. Trim and shake from quality flower can still produce a quality pre-roll. The problem is that the labels do not say, and the price does not reflect the difference.