Mexico cannot be proven to have invented the joint, but its 19th- and early 20th-century records contain some of the strongest early evidence for recreational cannabis smoked in cigarette form.
Paper Roots
Mexico did not invent rolling paper, but it industrialized paper-wrapped tobacco early.
In 1769, the Spanish Crown opened Mexico City’s Real Fábrica de Puros y Cigarros. By 1800, more than 8,000 people reportedly worked there.
That familiar cigarette format would later become one of the ways cannabis was consumed.
1846: Smoking Marihuana Like Tobacco
On April 5, 1846, El Republicano reported soldiers smoking “marihuxna” in a manner compared with tobacco.
This is an important early record of recreational cannabis being smoked cigarette-style.
The report does not specify whether paper was used, so it cannot prove that these were joints in the modern sense.
1853–1859: Intoxication & Prison Use
In 1853, physician Leonardo Oliva recorded Mexicans smoking marijuana for intoxication and hallucinatory effects.
In 1859, Crescencio García documented prisoners smoking cannabis at the Guadalajara jail and on Mezcala Island.
García also noted that cannabis was sometimes mixed with tobacco.
These accounts strengthen the evidence for smoked recreational use, but they still do not establish one universal format.
Joint, Spliff or Something Else?
The exact form of these early cannabis cigarettes remains uncertain.
The 1846 account does not mention paper, while García’s later description shows that cannabis could be combined with tobacco.
Some examples may have resembled modern joints, others spliffs, and others may have used a different tobacco-style smoking method.
The evidence supports cigarette-style cannabis use more strongly than it supports a claim for the first modern joint.
Cannabis Cigarettes as Medicine
By the late 1800s, Mexican pharmacopoeias listed marijuana cigarettes for conditions including asthma.
Smoking cannabis was also appearing across different social settings, including soldiers, prisoners, workers and border communities.
An 1897 Arizona report described marijuana-and-tobacco cigarettes, showing that the mixed format had also crossed into the borderlands.
1900: The Factory Claim
In 1900, El Nacional alleged that some Mexican tobacco factories were adding marijuana to cigarettes and warned against “smoking marijuana with tobacco.”
If accurate, the report suggests a commercial, spliff-like cigarette format.
However, the factory claim itself remains unconfirmed and should be treated as a contemporary allegation rather than established fact.
1906: A Documented Retail Sale
In 1906, Domingo Díaz purchased 3 marijuana cigarettes for 6¢ from María Serrano.
Police later searched Serrano’s home and reportedly found a basket of prepared cigarettes along with about 1.66 kilograms of cannabis.
She received 1 month in jail under a general public-health law.
Unlike the earlier reports, this case directly documents marijuana cigarettes being sold as a retail product.
1908: A Commercial Cannabis Cigarette Operation
An even larger case appeared in 1908.
José del Moral reportedly stored 40,000 hand-rolled marijuana cigarettes along with 60 arrobas of dried cannabis, roughly 690 kilograms.
He transported cannabis from Celaya to Mexico City and sold prepared cigarettes, loose flower and kilogram quantities to drugstores and private buyers.
Del Moral defended his business as medicinal. He was convicted for selling without the required public-health license, while newspapers portrayed the operation as a dangerous “marijuana factory.”
Whatever the contemporary moral framing, the case documents a substantial commercial market for cannabis cigarettes.
Legacy
Mexico cannot be proven to have rolled the world’s first joint.
What the surviving record does show is a long progression from 1840s recreational smoking, to marijuana mixed with tobacco, to medicinal cigarettes, retail sales and eventually tens of thousands of commercially prepared cannabis cigarettes.
By the early 1900s, the cannabis cigarette was no longer an isolated curiosity in Mexico. It was a recognizable, portable product with recreational, medicinal and commercial uses.
That makes Mexico one of the strongest early chapters in the history of the modern joint.
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