Colorado town’s water may make you high

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 under way, he said. The field tests weren’t capable of showing how much THC was in the water, 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.

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