420 Yoga: Pairing Yoga with Recreational Drug Use

In this New York Times article by Laurie Winer, Liz McDonald speaks about a specific class she teaches called 420 Remedy Yoga. The class encouraged participants to smoke marijuana before class.

Since yoga and meditation have their roots in searching for inner peace, and marijuana can serve as a tool for relaxing and mellowing out, the two have been combined for decades.Some evidence even suggests that mind-altering drugs have been used for centuries in combination with yoga and meditation.

In California, where McDonald teaches, medicinal marijuana has been legal since 2003. With the recent election, which legalized the usage of small amounts of recreational marijuana in Washington and Colorado, Winer writes that more classes like McDonald's 420 Remedy may start appearing. However, possession is still a federal offensive, so students may have to smoke before arriving at class.

McDonald recognizes that most yogis would disagree with her stance on marijuana and yoga practice, but she says that it assists her class. "People don't believe that they can feel their heart beat or that they can send breath into their lower appendages. A little pot relaxes them into comprehending," she says.

Many other yogis say that using marijuana interferes with the principal of self-discipline, and say that altering your reality is equivalent to escapism, not relaxation.

I personally do not partake, but I wonder if grouping these two traditionally "psychadelic" practices actually has any merit. I would love to see some studies that show the difference in yoga practice between someone who has imbibed and someone who is completely sober, or even just getting some insight from surveys or interviews.

I also do not think this is a recent trend, although it will be interesting to see how the new legality of marijuana in some states impacts businesses, including yoga studios.