Levy Thamba Pongi, the 19-year-old Wyoming college student who jumped to his death at a Denver hotel, consumed more than one cookie purchased by a friend even though a store clerk told the friend to cut each cookie into six pieces and to eat just one piece at a time, said the reports obtained Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
Investigators believe Pongi, who is a native of the Republic of Congo, and three friends from Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, traveled to Colorado on spring break to try marijuana, the AP reported. According to the report, Pongi had never tried marijuana.
At their hotel, the group of four friends followed the seller's instructions, but when Pongi felt nothing after about 30 minutes, he ate an entire cookie, police said, according to the AP.
The marijuana concentration in Pongi's blood was 7.2 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood, the AP reported. Colorado law says juries can assume someone is driving while impaired if their blood contains more than 5 nanograms per milliliter.
After Pongi's death, Denver police took the remaining cookies from the pot shop to test their levels of THC, according to the AP.
The wrapper of the cookies bought by the students said each contained 65 mg of THC for 6 1/2 servings and tests showed the cookies were within the required THC limits, police said, the AP reported. The cookie's wrappers had cautioned "this marijuana product has not been tested for contaminants or potency."
Within an hour, he began speaking erratically in French, shaking, screaming and throwing things around the hotel room, according to the AP.
"'This is a sign from God that this has happened, that I can't control myself,'" Pongi told his friends, according to the reports, the AP reported. "'It's not because of the weed.'"
Marijuana cookies and other edibles have become increasingly popular since Colorado allowed people 21 and over to buy recreational marijuana this year at regulated stores and federal authorities can't regulate the edibles because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, according to the AP. Guidelines are expected to be released next month.
One of Pongi's friends told investigators it may have been his first time using marijuana, the only one toxicology tests found in his system, the AP reported. All three friends said they did not purchase or take any other drugs during their stay.
Authorities said they would not press charges against Pongi's 23-year-old friend who told police she bought the cookies while he waited outside the store even though Colorado law bans the sale of recreational marijuana products to people under 21, and adults can be charged with a felony for giving pot to someone under the legal age, the AP reported.
