Colorado Town Might Have THC in Their Water

Bottle labeled "water analysis"

Tap water in Hugo, Colorado is being tested for THC.
Image: Shutterstock

It sounds like something out of a corny old movie about the dangers of hippies or marijuana, but the town of Hugo, Colorado might have THC in their water supply.

After drug screenings at a local business gave some confusing results, the company running those tests tried some tap water to see what a negative result should look like. They found that the water tested positive for THC, the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.

This doesn’t mean that there actually is THC in the water, but other field tests have come back positive, so laboratory tests are required. For now the water system is being flushed so that the potentially contaminated water is removed.

Even if the area tap water does have THC in it, it would require an absurd amount to have any affect on people. The chemical also isn’t water soluble, making water a poor way to convey it. Still, the town decided not to take any chances and warned everyone not to drink or cook with the water for now.

The one well in town that seems to be contaminated also shows signs of having been tampered with, although the nature of those signs is unclear at the moment. Whether or not that tampering is related to the THC is also unknown.

The idea of a whole town getting high off some THC-laced water might be funny, but water safety is actually a very serious problem. Just ask residents of Flint, Michigan, who haven’t been able to drink their water all year because it’s laced with dangerously high amounts of lead. It’s no wonder Hugo is taking this seriously.

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