News » Ganja Yoga – Pass the Blunt and Stretch





A yoga class in a Toronto home features conversation, quiet guitar accompaniment, a dozen students stretching on mats on the floor, incense, and a marijuana vaporizer. The instructor is Dee Dussault, whose monthly session of cannabis-enhanced yoga is called Follow Your Bliss.

Dussault says that small doses of marijuana before class makes students more receptive to the poses and philosophies of yoga, loosening inhibitions and second thoughts. This goes counter to some thoughts on yoga and online forums are abuzz with questions about the “purity” of yoga and whether this latest rendition is just another westernized fad.

Cannabis, of course, has been associated with religion, philosophy, and the metaphysical for all of known human history (along with many other substances). The class has been held monthly for a year and instructor Dussault also runs the Hot Box Cafe in Toronto (not a dispensary).

Although the practice is illegal, Dussault is open about her monthly 90 minute classes and has strict rules about attendance. She believes the cops have “bigger fish to fry” and her students are vetted before attending the class so that those who just want to come to “get high” aren’t invited. All students who participate (she has a dozen now) bring their own pot and are not allowed to trade or share.

It’s clear that Ms. Dussault is not running a fad “get stoned and stretch” get together. Most of her students are veteran yoga practitioners, not newcomers, and the practice has spread to a dispensary in British Columbia, which offers a yoga class to patients to enhance their physical well-being beyond the medicinal effects of marijuana.

I don’t know about you, but this sounds a lot more relaxing than “hip hop yoga” to me.

[source The Globe and Mail]

Tags: Canada, ganja yoga, medical, Toronto