HUGO, Colo. (AP) — Officials told residents of a small Colorado community not to drink or shower in tap water Thursday because one of the town’s wells may have been contaminated with THC, marijuana’s intoxicating chemical.
No illnesses have been linked to the water in Hugo, a town of about 730 people some 100 miles southeast of Denver, said Lincoln County Public Health Director Susan Kelly.
THC was detected in tests conducted with field kits, although other field tests were negative, sheriff’s Capt. Michael Yowell said.
More definitive laboratory tests were underway, he said.
The field tests weren’t capable of showing how much THC was in the water, but only whether the chemical was there, he said.
Investigators found signs that one of Hugo’s five wells had been tampered with, but they hadn’t determined whether someone deliberately tainted the water, Yowell said.
The FBI and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation are helping with the case, he said.
Hugo prohibits marijuana cultivation, product manufacturing, testing facilities and retail marijuana stores, although those activities are legal elsewhere in the state.
Peter Perrone, owner of a marijuana testing facility in the Denver area, expressed doubt that THC could be in the water. The chemical isn’t water-soluble, he told The Denver Post.
Yowell said investigators were aware of that but had to follow up because of the field test results.
He said a company that administers employee drug tests was the first to detect THC in Hugo’s water. A tester sampled tap water, assuming it would be negative, but it was positive.
It’s unlikely that consuming pot-tainted water would cause lasting health effects, said Mark Salley, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health and Environment.
The effects of drinking THC-laced water would depend on the concentration, the amount consumed and how quickly it was consumed, and officials don’t yet have that information, Salley said.
Consuming water containing THC would be similar to eating marijuana-infused food, meaning the effect would depend entirely on how much was consumed and the strength of the tainted water.
photo: Vortex Farmacy
You people are pathetic. Crying about THC in the water like it’s going to have any effect at all. Grow the fuck up.
How dumb can prohibitionists get?
THC in the town well just happens to show up after the area’s worst of the worst tamper with drinking water. It’s an old government trick to get press coverage.
Colorado government seems to be unable to provide safety.
Another reefer mad prohibitionists hard at work, over money,power,and greed.
THC is not soluble in water and cannot be infused in water so it had to be added, probably by anti-weed people to make it look like natural contamination. WHY would anyone test for THC in a public water well?
that and the thc would have no effect what so ever no mater how much was put in the water, unless of course the start boiling they’re water before they drink it. so to tell people ot to bath in the water is just stupid.
It literally could not have an effect. The pure lack of Scientific knowledge on most sides of this is scary.
The whole article smells of bullshit. For starters, if thc somehow got in the water naturally,it would be thca not thc, which is inactive unless heated until decarboxylation occurs. There would be 0 effect on anybodys health who drank the water. Also, wouldn’t the thca all group together and start forming solids if it was in water? This just makes zero sense.
This sounds less like facts and more like another load of click bait crap from the associated press
retest says there is no THC…. amazing how the dont legalize bunch will try to freak out on anything… how about the damage of alcohol and cigarettes?
Turns out this was all a lie:
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/23/hugo-water-safe-no-thc/
BULLSHIT. THC is Not Water Soluble.