The lazy, greasy-looking stoner image populated throughout contemporary media is obsolete. We’ve repeated the stance multiple times on this site, but it goes beyond normalizing what exactly the modern stoner looks like. It isn’t just soccer moms and business folk who use cannabis, but also those who are extremely health-conscious. Marijuana yoga classes have appeared in California, which recently legalized recreational marijuana usage. As a recent Vogue article detailed, class attendees will puff THC from vaporizers or enjoy CBD-infused “cookies”—“which are really clusters of organic seeds sweetened with dried fruit and cinnamon”—prior to running through classic yoga stretching and poses.
“It’s been happening for a long time,” Bloom Farms founder and former Wall Street trader Mike Ray told Vogue. “Yoga and cannabis have gone together for as long as yoga and cannabis have been around.”
Medicated yoga classes aren’t the only signal in the rising trend to combine cannabis and fitness. The San Francisco-based gym “Power Plant Fitness” has developed the first wellness center where cannabis and fitness enhance one another. Their trainers aren’t lazy stoners but highly knowledgeable about physiology and technique to maximize attendees workout routine.
For those who enjoy a little competition, there’s also the 420 Games. The organization hosts unique athletic events in legalized states across the country to promote wellness and craft a space that supports cannabis usage in productive, healthy lifestyle.
Research remains limited because of marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I drug. Some are even openly wondering whether we should consider weed as a performance-enhancing drug for some athletes. For now one thing is certain: marijuana and a healthy lifestyle don’t have to be enemies. Organizations and people across the country are proving that if approached correctly, they can even be friends.