"Ganja yoga" offers a mix of mindfulness and marijuana
From goat yoga to laughing yoga, there seems to be a type of yoga for everyone's tastes. Now, some yogis are adding pot to their practice.
In San Francisco, new students are flocking to Dee Dussault's ganja yoga classes, where yogis can mix their passion for downward dog with a taste for marijuana now that recreational pot is legal in California.
"People have the luxury of arriving whenever they want in the first half an hour in what we call the Stoner's Social," Dussault told CBS News.
Dussault believes the combination of mindfulness and marijuana can improve her students' health.
"There are anti-inflammatory benefits to cannabis and specifically CBD products can have amazing pain relieving benefits and anti-anxiety, anti-depression benefits," she said. CBD products include oils, edibles, beverages and other products made with cannabidiol, a component of marijuana.
The class opens with students sampling products. "We hang out. We talk. We break the ice," said participant Ezra Malmuth.
Then there's an hour of yoga with breaks for a quick puff.
Some critics question the health benefits of using marijuana, and medical research does not back up all of the claims that are made for it. But Tiffany Marquez says it relieves her migraines and puts her body at ease.
"It helps to loosen your muscles and it helps lower you inhibitions so you're more likely to try a different move that maybe before you might have been apprehensive of," she told CBS News.
Students may feel a little loopy after class so Dussault has them stick around for 30 minutes to sober up. She is looking to expand the classes into more cities.
Similar yoga sessions are already being offered in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., where recreational marijuana is legal for adults. Students aren't required to smoke during class.
