Why are Colorado businesses still testing for pot if it's legal?

Last week’s THC scare in Hugo began when a company tested its employees for cannabis. While the drug is legal, employees can still be fired for using it

Alison Moodie

 
Captain Michael Yowell, of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, addresses the media in Hugo, Colorado, on July 21. Officials told residents not to drink or shower in tap water Thursday because one of the town’s wells may have been contaminated with THC. Photograph: Michael Reaves/AP 

aboratory tests conducted over the weekend showed that there was no THC – marijuana’s primary psychoactive ingredient – in the water supply in the town of Hugo, Colorado, after field tests at municipal wells earlier in the week came back positive for the chemical. 


While attention focused on the drama of the investigation into the town’s water, the incident highlights a legal gray area for employers and workers in states where marijuana use is allowed. The THC was first found in a vial of tap water meant to show an absolute negative result for drugs after a local company reported inconsistencies in drug tests on its employees.

While pot may be legal in Colorado, companies can still fire employees for using the drug when off the job, even when they have a prescription for medical marijuana.

That was the decision handed down by the Colorado Supreme Court in a case last year involving a quadriplegic worker who had a medical prescription to use marijuana to manage his pain. He was fired from his job at Dish Network in 2010 when he failed a random drug test. The court ruled that since marijuana is still prohibited under federal law, employers were within their rights to terminate employees who tested positive for the drug.

Employers continue to administer drug tests because of misconceptions about cannabis use and its effects on human behavior, said Amanda Reiman, a lecturer at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California-Berkeley and manager of Marijuana Law and Policy at the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit that pushes for drug law reform.

“In many cases, business associations and chambers of commerce are wary of laws that do not give them control over their workplace drug testing policies,” Reiman said.

Companies’ concerns that employees who use pot may underperform at work might not be warranted. A recent study, published earlier this month in the Journal of Health Economics, found that people living in states where marijuana is legal took 8% – 15% fewer sick days than those living in states where the drug is outlawed.

The science around drug testing can also be tricky, and when it comes to marijuana is significantly more complicated than testing for alcohol. Cannabis is stored in the fat cells, and can remain in the system long after intoxication has worn off. This means someone who used marijuana when not at work can test positive for THC even weeks later, said Reiman.

She suggests that instead of drug tests, companies use different methods such as so-called computer-based impairment testing, which measures a person’s response time and memory when intoxication of any kind is suspected at work.

“Until the public adopts a more realistic view of cannabis and its effects, businesses will still likely respond with reefer madness when trying to protect their bottom line,” said Reiman. “Unfortunately, more and more, these practices rule out highly qualified and talented applicants and employees.”

Reefer madness is what took hold of the town of Hugo last week. The town’s roughly 730 residents were warned not to drink, cook or bathe in the water until further testing for THC had been done.

Officials distributed bottles of water to people and the local swimming pool shut down.

Colorado’s public health department issued an advisory about the dangers of drinking water containing THC, warning it could lead to impaired coordination while driving and psychotic symptoms.

Hugo’s Public Works Department investigated and found “signs of tamper” at one of the town’s wells, said Captain Michael Yowell of Lincoln County Sheriff’s office during a news conference.

Samples from that same well came back positive for THC, said Yowell. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation was called in to conduct further laboratory tests, which came back negative.

The Lincoln County Sherriff’s office tweeted on Saturday to say they believed the earlier test kits had given false positives.

There were no reports of any health issues linked to drinking the water, according to an AP report on Friday. Even if it had been laced with THC, people likely wouldn’t have suffered any ill effects as a result.

“It would take more product than any of us could afford to contaminate a city water supply to the extent that people would suffer any effects,” Lincoln County health officer John Fox said in a statement.

THC also isn’t water soluble, so it can’t easily mix with water, said Reiman.

“There are some beverages, such as Dixie Elixirs, that contain THC and they have to go through a very lengthy and complicated process to achieve this,” she said. “It is not as simple as opening a water tank or a well and pouring in THC.”

After the Lincoln County Sherriff’s Office announced the warning on its Facebook page, numerous online commenters accused the department of disingenuous motives.

“You would only need a VERY basic knowledge of chemistry to know why this update is 100% false and even scientifically impossible,” one user wrote. “So what you are doing here is politics.”

The absence of widespread panic shows how people’s attitude has changed towards marijuana use, said Reiman.

“Many residents continued to bathe in the water and use it to wash their dishes,” she said. “No one was immediately calling for an end to legalization in Colorado.”