“We got bongs, pipes, papers, dab rigs, whatever you want,” founder Katherine “Kitty” Harris said one recent morning, as skunky pot smoke and instrumental spa music filled the room. With class in session, regulars passed joints around, then sat silently on yoga mats, breathing slowly and deeply, before entering their next pose.
The class’s Zen vibe belies the years of legal wrangling and political lobbying it took to get here. Studio A64, where the class is held several times a week, is among at least a dozen cannabis cafes in Colorado, a number poised to explode in January, when a new state law will allow marijuana retailers to offer “tasting rooms” for customers to consume their edibles, joints, and other products. Until the law takes effect, the current spots can’t sell pot — they are BYOC, or “bring your own cannabis.”
Caleb Berry reclined on his yoga mat next to cannabis joints during a Secret Stash yoga session Sunday.
The 11 states with legal recreational pot are grappling with how to handle public and social consumption. As in Massachusetts, people in Colorado are barred from smoking, vaping, or eating pot products anywhere besides private homes. That can pose a challenge for tourists, renters, and public housing residents who have nowhere to legally consume a legal substance.