NEWS
BY MIKE BIVINS
PAPER TRAIL
RAW rolling papers dominate Eugene-Springfield pot shops
W
alk into a Eugene dispensary to purchase
one of their house-rolled joints and ask the
clerk what brand of rolling paper they used.
More likely than not, your joint will have
been spun up using RAW brand rolling pa-
vinyl roller for completion.
But whether a dispensary uses RAW or Elements brand
rolling papers, both are the brainchild of New York City’s
Josh Kesselman, who says that his rolling paper empire has
made “ridiculous quantities” of money, though he stresses
that “it’s never been about the money” and that “money
is a lot of fun, but it’s not the focus of my life and not the
focus of RAW.”
Kesselman also contends that his RAW papers are the
best in the world, and that they are sold “everywhere people
appreciate quality rolling papers,” such as Japan, Italy and
also Spain, where RAW rolling papers are manufactured.
One thing to note on your next trip to the neighborhood
smoke accessory shop is the copious amount of shelf space
occupied by RAW products.
“RAW has put out more products than anyone ever
has,” Kesselman says. On that note, he notes that “this past
year I launched RAW black, which is probably the best
paper we have ever made.”
RAW black, being 25 percent thinner than other RAW
papers, is supposed to allow you to taste the weed more
clearly, which calls for using high-quality weed because,
if you don’t, then you will really be able to taste the brick-
weed — more so than if you rock with run-of-the-mill
rolling papers like Top.
WALT O’BRIEN
BY PAUL NEEVEL
HAPPENING PEOPLE
pers.
The local popularity of RAW became evident while this
reporter was running an unscientific survey of a number of
Eugene, and even some Springfield, dispensaries. Fifteen
out of seventeen Eugene-area dispensaries surveyed over
the phone say they currently use RAW brand rolling papers
to roll their joints — with most using RAW cones, which
require no licking or added moisture.
RAW brand papers are touted as being less processed
than competing brands, with a variety of hemp and non-
hemp options available for cannabis connoisseurs. The
brand offers organic and regular versions, arguing that its
papers take longer to process because RAW doesn’t use
ethyl vinyl acetate (chemical glue).
Common reasons for RAW’s popularity given by sur-
veyed dispensaries are that RAW papers burn evenly and
thus smoke better, and also that customers seem to be ex-
pecting RAW.
The brand has a cult-like following with endorsements
from Wiz Khalifa, Rihanna and Rick Ross, and 1.2 million
followers on Instagram.
One outlying data-point is Springfield’s Phresh Start.
Phresh Start owner Racheal Pond says her dispensary cur-
rently uses Jware rolling papers for its joints. However,
Pond has only been in business for about a month, and says
she will “upgrade” to RAW papers as soon as the Jware
papers are gone.
In the meantime, Pond has RAW papers in stock if
customers would prefer to buy bud and roll their own. To
that end, Phresh Start has an April 22 after-4/20 promotion
where joints will be on sale for $3, bringing the RAW pa-
pers into the rotation that much quicker.
The other outlying data-point, Buds in Eugene, utilizes
Elements for its house joints, says general manager and
co-owner Daniel Corgan. “We use [Elements] because the
adhesive works better, and I tend to have RAW papers un-
roll on me,” he says.
Corgan adds that he prefers the way the Elements-rolled
joints burn to the way RAW papers burn — which he says
results in a more even burn, with “less running,” which
is when one side of the joint burns a little faster than the
other.
Buds doesn’t utilize no-lick cones, but Corgan says he
gets around that by keeping a bowl of water handy to sub-
stitute for saliva before feeding the unrolled joint into a
“I got my first camera at the age of 13,” says Walt O’Brien, who joined the
camera club at Stephen F. Austin Junior High in Amarillo, Texas. “Our darkroom
was in the janitor’s closet.” O’Brien built a darkroom in the attic at home while
in high school and another in the basement of his frat house at Westminster
College in Fulton, Missouri. He spent one five-month summer season working
at Yellowstone National Park while in college and three more summers there
after graduating with a degree in German. “I had only one day a week off,” he
says. “I used it for landscape photography.” In between summers he worked
in a camera store in Amarillo, did freelance photography and took classes at
the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. After moving to Oregon
in 1973, O’Brien worked for photo firms in Corvallis, Salem and Roseburg. In
1980, he opened his own business, The Picture Machine, a one-hour photo lab
in Roseburg. “It was the second one-hour lab in Oregon,” he says. “I ran it for 15
years.” Since 1996, he has provided custom photofinishing services in Eugene.
He offers inkjet printing from film or digital, traditional film processing and en-
largement, and late 1800s-era palladium printing. The front room of his shop at
2833 Willamette Street, Suite B, is the O’Brien Photo Gallery, currently featuring
photographs by members of the Photozone Gallery group. O’Brien himself has
been an active member of Photozone since 1992. His exhibit of 36 color photo-
graphs, Natural Landscapes of the American West, is on view at the University
of Oregon Law Center’s second-floor Atrium Gallery through July 7.
AWARD W IN N ING , IN DOOR GROW N , HAN D T RIMME D ,
PREMIU M C AN N ABIS FLOW ERS .
CHEC K O U T W W W .CHILLYSGARDEN .COM
TO FIN D T HIS GREAT FLOW ER AT AN
OLCC RECREAT ION AL SHOP N EAR YO U .
@chillysgarden
14
A pril 20, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
WAR N IN G : F or us e by adul ts 21 and ol der. Keep out
of r eac h of c hi l dr en. D o not oper ate a v ehi c l e or
m ac hi ner y under the i nfl uenc e of thi s dr ug.