Bio:
Julie Kuepers is a senior content strategist and copywriter with 15+ years of experience helping brands find their voice and tell their story. She has spent years immersed in the cannabis industry, tracking its trends, consumer behavior, and evolving compliance landscape to create informed, industry-savvy content. She writes regularly for Green Rush Packaging, a cannabis packaging supplier serving licensed operators across the U.S.
Pre rolls have quietly become one of the most dominant product categories in legal cannabis. Between January 2023 and June 2024, pre rolls amassed more than $4.1 billion in sales revenue and sold more than 394 million units, with market share rising from 13.2% to a record-high 15.9%. Walk into any dispensary today and you’ll find an entire wall dedicated to them, singles, multipacks, infused varieties, and everything in between.
But here’s something most consumers never think about: the tube the pre roll comes in matters more than you’d expect. The packaging isn’t just cosmetic. It affects freshness, compliance, portability, and the overall experience of the product inside. If you’ve ever pulled a pre roll out of a crumpled bag or found one that had dried out before you could finish it, you already understand the problem a well-designed tube solves.
This guide breaks down what you actually need to know about pre roll tubes before you buy, whether you’re a consumer trying to make sense of your options or just curious about what goes into getting that perfectly rolled joint from the cultivator to your hands.
What is a pre roll tube, exactly?
A pre roll tube is a cylindrical container designed to hold one or more pre rolled cannabis cigarettes. They’re typically made from plastic or glass, though plastic has become the dominant format in retail cannabis for reasons we’ll get into shortly. They seal at the top, usually with a pop-top or twist-off cap, and are sized to fit standard pre roll formats.
The top package size in terms of units sold is the 1-gram pre roll, though the vast majority of top-selling products are multi-packs of half-gram pre rolls, reflecting how consumer preferences have evolved toward both value and variety. The tube serves several functions at once. It protects the pre roll from physical damage during transport and handling, creates an airtight or near-airtight seal that slows the degradation of cannabis flower, and in legal markets, it provides the surface area brands need to meet state-mandated labeling requirements, including THC content, weight, batch numbers, and health warnings.
Why plastic pre roll tubes have become the industry standard
Glass has its advocates, particularly among premium brands that want to signal quality and sustainability. But plastic pre roll tubes have become the go-to format across the legal cannabis market for several practical reasons.
First, they’re lightweight. For a consumer carrying a pre roll to a concert, a hike, or a backyard gathering, a plastic tube adds almost nothing to their bag. Glass adds weight and, more importantly, breakage risk.
Second, they’re durable. Drop a plastic tube and it bounces. Drop a glass one and you may be sweeping up both the tube and the pre roll you were saving for later.
Third, plastic tubes are cost-effective to produce at scale, which keeps retail prices accessible for both brands and consumers. The average price of a pre roll has fallen 16.7% since January 2023, dropping from $7.80 per unit to $6.50, even as total units sold continue to climb.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly for legal markets, plastic pre roll tubes are available in child-resistant formats that meet federal safety standards. Child-resistant packaging isn’t optional in most regulated cannabis markets. According to ASTM D-3475 standards, safety tests involve children under the age of five, and to pass, 85% of children should not be able to open the packaging without a demonstration. Plastic tubes with certified CR closures allow brands to meet those requirements without sacrificing the clean, portable form factor consumers expect.
For consumers wondering what to look for when evaluating pre roll packaging, plastic pre roll tubes come in a range of sizes, colors, and closure types that reflect both the brand’s positioning and the product inside.
What to look for as a consumer
Not all pre roll tubes are created equal, and as a cannabis consumer, knowing what to look for can help you choose products that have been packaged with care.
Child-resistant closure
In legal markets, this is non-negotiable from a regulatory standpoint, but it’s also a signal that the brand is operating professionally. Several states including Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, and Missouri now require cannabis packaging to meet updated ASTM D3475-2024 standards, testing both children and senior adults to ensure products are safe but still accessible. Look for a pop-top or push-and-turn mechanism that requires deliberate effort to open.
Airtight seal
A good pre roll tube should hold its seal consistently. If you’re opening and closing it multiple times before finishing a multi-pack, you want to know the seal is still doing its job. Degraded flower from poor packaging is one of the most common consumer complaints in the cannabis space.
Appropriate sizing
A tube that’s too large for its contents allows the pre roll to rattle around and risk damage. A well-matched tube holds the pre roll snugly without crushing it.
Clear labeling
In legal markets, every pre roll package is required to carry specific information including cannabinoid content, net weight, batch or lot number, and state-mandated health and safety warnings. If a package is missing this information, that’s a red flag regardless of how good the product inside might be.
Opaque vs. clear
Some tubes are opaque, others are clear or translucent. This is partly a branding decision, but it also has functional implications. Light exposure can degrade cannabis flower over time by breaking down cannabinoids and terpenes. An opaque tube offers better protection for products that may sit on a shelf for weeks before purchase.
Why packaging reflects product quality
There’s a reasonable argument to be made that the care a brand puts into its packaging reflects the care it puts into its product. Cannabis brands that invest in well-designed, properly sealed, correctly sized pre roll tubes are signaling something about how they operate. They’ve thought through the consumer experience from cultivation to consumption.
That matters more as the legal cannabis market matures and consumers become more sophisticated. The 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 74% of cannabis consumers smoke their cannabis, signaling that smoking remains the preferred consumption method and that pre rolls are positioned perfectly to serve that preference at scale.
Millennials account for the largest share of pre roll purchases, representing 44.6% of all pre roll spending in September 2024, totaling $103.9 million. This is a consumer segment that grew up reading ingredient labels and caring about how products are made and presented. They notice packaging.
What the multi-pack trend tells us about tube design
One of the most significant shifts in the pre roll market in recent years has been the rise of multi-packs. Multi-pack pre rolls account for nearly 50% of the pre roll market in the U.S., with sales increasing by 43% between early 2023 and mid-2024.
Multi-packs change the calculus on tube design. When a consumer is buying a five-pack or ten-pack of pre rolls to enjoy over several sessions, the resealability and durability of the tube matters even more than it does for a single. A tube that loses its seal after two or three openings is a problem for a multi-pack in a way it simply isn’t for a single-use product. Brands that have figured out how to design tubes that maintain their integrity across repeated use cycles have a real advantage in this growing segment.
What you’re really buying
Pre roll tubes might seem like a minor detail in the larger story of cannabis consumption, but they’re doing real work. They protect the product, satisfy regulatory requirements, signal brand quality, and shape the consumer experience from the moment someone picks up a package off a dispensary shelf.
As pre rolls continue to grow as a category, packaging will only become more important, both as a practical necessity and as a point of differentiation in an increasingly competitive market. Next time you reach for a pre roll, take a second look at the tube it came in. There’s more going on there than you might think.
