A defunct New Mexico cannabis cultivator sued the state last month, claiming a negligent state worker ruined the crop and ultimately the company with an accidental toxic flood from an historic irrigation canal.
In a lawsuit filed Aug. 28 in state court, Albuquerque Cannabis Corp. is seeking $442,000 in damages for an August 2023 incident in which a state worker allegedly allowed a flood that destroyed 850 plants along with cultivation equipment, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
The flood tainted the plants with water “inundated with fecal bacteria,” according to the suit.
The lawsuit names Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Attorney General Raul Torrez and other state officials as defendants.
State officials declined to comment on the pending litigation.
According to the suit, Albuquerque Cannabis Corp. leased a 4-acre site adjacent to an historic site called Los Luceros, which includes a waterway dating from the 1700s called an acequia.
The suit claims that a supervisor at Los Luceros left a gate to the acequia open during irrigation.
“I think he just forgot and went home for lunch or whatever and left it open for hours,” Derek Watts, one of the company’s principals, told the newspaper.
The open gate allowed a flood of 650,000 gallons of toxic water to wreck Albuquerque Cannabis Corp.’s entire crop on the day the plants were to start flowering, according to the suit.
The flood destroyed the flowering plants as well as an estimated 400 pounds of processed flower and trim, according to the suit.
According to the lawsuit, later lab testing revealed the plants were “inundated with fecal bacteria,” presumably from the irrigation ditch.
The company went out of business shortly thereafter, Watts said.
The lawsuit comes amid a decline in licensed marijuana businesses in New Mexico.
That’s despite recent record spending on cannabis by state consumers.
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