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It's still unclear how the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana entered the water supply. Newslook
This Sept. 2, 2010, photo shows a marijuana plant as it matures in a grow house in Denver.(Photo: Ed Andrieski, AP)
HUGO, Colo. — Residents of the small Colorado town of Hugo still have no answers for why their water supply may have been contaminated by THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
Officials announced Thursday that some field tests had found THC in the water, but they were awaiting the results of more definitive laboratory tests, which would also tell how much THC is in the water, if its presence is confirmed.
"Kinda bad when a little town like this, somebody dumped something in the damn water, especially something from marijuana," Hugo resident Skip Tracy said.
Lincoln County officials first discovered the issue when an employee used tap water to demonstrate a clean drug test. But the tap water tested positive for THC.
USA TODAY
Officials: Colo. town’s drinking water tainted with THC
Lincoln County sheriff’s Capt. Mike Yowell says more tests were done and an independent chemist tested the water. All the initial tests showed the presence of THC.
Yowell says county officials understand that THC should not be soluble in water, but based on the initial tests, they placed residents under a bottled-water restriction out of an abundance of caution. Now, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation is conducting a more thorough test of the water system to look for a broad spectrum of chemicals.
Yowell says the CBI test results should be concluded Saturday.
Yowell says one of the town's wells was broken into and investigators believe the water system was tampered with.
County officials said residents can bathe in the tap water and wash clothes, but it should not be ingested.
State health officials say it’s too soon to know whether THC in the water would intoxicate people who drink it.
"It’s quite an inconvenience because if you’ve got animals, you’ve got to give them bottled water. You don’t want to hallucinate your dog or your cat," resident Sam Stalford said.
Volunteers hand out cases of bottled water to residents in Hugo, Colo.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Courtesy of Corky Scholl)
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. Commercial marijuana cultivation, product manufacturing, testing facilities and retail marijuana stores are banned in Hugo, although they are legal elsewhere in the state.
On Friday, thousands of bottles of water were handed to residents at Hugo’s town hall.
"It surprised everyone for sure," said Emily Easton, a local Methodist pastor. "The guys have been incredible bringing the water in for everybody, so that’s a good thing. It shows how the community comes together."
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, said Mark Salley, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health and Environment.
THC commonly must be heated to have an intoxicating effect, a process called decarboxylation, and that’s why weed is commonly smoked or burned in oil, not eaten raw.
Tracy is just ready for this whole ordeal to be over.
"It just puts a kink in your get-along," Tracy said. "I'd like to cook something at home."
Contributing: The Associated Press
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