RAW is the rolling-paper brand Josh Kesselman turned into a smoke-shop standard. Owned by his Phoenix company, HBI Innovations, it is known for thin, unbleached papers and pre-rolled cones, backed by tips, trays, rolling machines, grinders and a deep apparel line sold through authorized retailers. RAW sells paper and gear, not cannabis, and its founder now also publishes High Times.
Josh Kesselman, from Gainesville to Phoenix
Kesselman's run in the paper business started in 1993, when he opened Knuckleheads Tobacco & Gifts in Gainesville, Florida, during his senior year at the University of Florida. By his own account he sold everything he owned, maxed out his credit cards and lived in a friend's storage shed to get it open.
In 1997 he started HBI in Phoenix, and he says he grew it without bank loans by reinvesting everything. Elements came first among its paper brands, followed by Juicy Jay's; RAW arrived in 2005, and HBI marked the brand's 20th anniversary with a RAW 20th Anniversary Emerald Gift Set.
The company, long known as BBK Tobacco & Foods, LLP doing business as HBI International, now operates as HBI Innovations and runs two Arizona warehouses plus a domestic plant that makes a selection of its products.
The HBI brand family
RAW sits at the top of a stable of HBI-owned brands that includes Elements, Juicy Jay's, Zen, Skunk Brand and Rolling Supreme, plus the MyWeigh, J-Scale and ProScale scale lines. HBI works as a wholesale distributor rather than a direct-to-consumer seller, and it also moves third-party names such as Zippo, Swisher Sweets and Smokebuddy.
Kesselman traces the Spanish side of the story through Elements, which grew out of a partnership with a Valencian paper factory whose owner's family had once made Marfil papers. The two agreed to bring that tradition back under a new name.
Unbleached paper, from Classic to Black
The look Kesselman chased was a thin, translucent, natural brown sheet that, in his words, did not exist when he started. RAW Classic is made from unbleached vegan plant fibers with a proprietary criss-cross steam imprint designed to stop runs and keep the burn even. RAW Black goes thinner: the brand calls it the thinnest unbleached paper it has ever made, produced in Spain's Benimarfull area, where dry Valencian winds keep humidity low.
- RAW Classic: the everyday line, in sizes from 1ΒΌ to King Size Wide
- RAW Black: extra-fine paper, including Black Connoisseur, Black Rolls and Black King Size
- RAW Organic Hemp: papers and cones under the Organic Hemp name
- RAW Ethereal: a specialty paper with matching cones, tips and trays
- RAW Collab: team-ups such as RAW x Lyrical Lemonade
RAW sits at No. 1 in Top 5 Best Rolling Paper Brands, ahead of Vibes, OCB and Elements.
Cones built for every session size
Pre-rolled cones are where RAW went from rolling culture to packing culture. The Classic range runs from RAW Mini Cones and Lil Lean Cones to King Size Garden Cones, the RAW Classic Phat Stogee and the Quarter Pounder and Half Pounder cones, plus the Cone Cross. RAW Black 98 Special cones, TERP'd Cones, Rocket Booster Cones and Ethereal Cones fill out the shelf.
Loading gear sits right beside them. The Double Shot Two Cone Filler packs two cones at once, and the RAW Six Shooter, 2-Way roller and Hemp Plastic roller cover rolling machines.
The rest of the rolling kit
Tips alone run to dozens of products, from RAW Pre-Rolled Sticky Tips and Black Perforated X-TRA LONG Tips to glass tips such as the RAW X Proper Doink Glass Tip. The tray catalog tops 50 designs, including the Cone Monster Tray, the RAW Backflip Rolling Tray and a RAW x Lyrical Lemonade tray.
Smoking gear covers the RAW Buddy Mill grinders, hemp wick, parchment, ashtrays and hand pipes like the RAW Black x Sidekick Holster Pipe. Storage, boards, apparel and even pet gear carry the logo too. Rawthentic.com works as a catalog only; everything is sold through smoke shops and other authorized stores, and new drops often surface first on Instagram at @rawlife247 and Kesselman's @rawkandroll.
Hip-hop and the World Rolling Championship
RAW's culture came from smokers, not sponsorships, in Kesselman's telling: Curren$y rapped about RAW papers, and Wiz Khalifa recorded a song called "RAW" because he loved them. That loyalty still drives the brand's community programs.
The World Rolling Championship turns rolling into a sport. U.S. entrants 21 and over post photos or vertical videos of their builds to Instagram, and judges score each roll on quality, creativity, complexity and smokability. Entries have to use papers from HBI brands. The 2026 round took submissions from February 15 to April 15, with $2,000 plus RAW product for first place. RAW also runs a Retailer Display Contest for shops and a RAW 101 series of how-to videos.
Kesselman and High Times
In June 2025 Kesselman and former co-owner Matt Stang bought High Times, including the magazine and the Cannabis Cup, out of receivership for $3.5 million in cash. Kesselman became publisher, Javier Hasse was named editor-in-chief, and in October 2025 the magazine released a limited 50th Anniversary Issue built from archival work by Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski and Andy Warhol alongside new reporting. The Cannabis Cup was relaunched the same fall as a New York people's-choice competition with third-party judging.
RAW Giving
Kesselman's charity work runs as RAW Giving, renamed from RAW Foundation in 2021. By its own account it is not a 501(c)(3) and takes no donations. Its projects include clean water for seven facilities in Ethiopia run by the Sisters of Mother Teresa, tree planting with Trees for the Future, and support for groups such as Last Prisoner Project, Mission Green and the ASPCA.
In 2026 RAW Giving launched The Josh Kesselman Foundation for Making The World A Better Place, a 501(c)(3) with a $2.2 million starting endowment for charitable work at home and abroad.