Pot Breathalyzer: Could it gauge impairment?
The dilemma that the present day lawmakers encounter in the face of post marijuana legalization scenario is testing for the impairment that its immediate effect causes. It has been a topic of discussion for long if legitimate pot breathalyzer can be created so, similar to alcohol breathalyzer, they can also prove the presence of impairing THC.
In a way it is good news to the smokers who can currently be charged with DUI that they are secure from any such violations. There is no device that can detect impairment by marijuana or prove its immediate influence. This whole scenario has been a topic of hot national dialogue. Standards are needed to be uplifted to the level where immediate impairment can be reflected by the devices than mere detection of illegitimate content.
After the states began legalizing marijuana, to keep the regulatory check over its consumption, they have been looking for ways to identify the impaired ones from those not really under the influence. The issue of stoned driving is still a controversial debacle and is required to be under control in any case. The strict no-tolerance policy for drugs in states like Indiana have many drivers charged with DUI because their blood samples verified a week long presence of marijuana content. With legal weed, comes some obligatory terms and conditions from the law and order. Even in many legal states, the impairment equivalent to 0.05 milligrams of THC per millimeter of blood while driving is beyond the approved limits.
To make the regulation work, makers have to formulate a device million times more sensitive than the alcohol breathalyzers. Because many experts doubt if marijuana impairment can be tested in the similar fashion as booze, it is certain that either the lawmakers get comfortable with the idea of driving under weed influence or they indulge into not-so-easy-to-use impairment detection methods. To date, no reliable data can relate the THC levels with behavioral or psychomotor impairment making it an ineffectual means to impose the DUI allegation. So no mapping can be done even if THC level of immediate consumption is figured out.
There might be a bad news in some years that such complicated inevitable devices have joined the law agencies as companies like Hound lab says that their prototypes to serve the impairment detection purpose will be ready by 2016. However, even if they turn out to be legitimate unlike others offered in the previous years, their FDI approval may take years for the devices to come through. So if the cops ask you to blow your marijuana breath into some crappy device, do it without reluctance. You won’t end up in a prison for sure but you may get some hits (here, smacks) for the reckless behavior.
