Legislation that prohibits California employers from discrimination based on evidence of past cannabis use. Gieringer says requiring an employee to blow into a THC breathalyzer right before, say, flying an airplane or operating heavy machinery makes more sense — and is less invasive — than a traditional urine or blood test. 2014 study comparing frequent and occasional smokers, researchers were shocked to discover that they didn’t detect THC at all in two people who smoked cannabis cigarettes right before their eyes. For the first few hours after you light up or eat an edible, a breathalyzer can detect the THC that is transferred from the bloodstream and into the lungs — just like alcohol. Developers are marketing the devices to law enforcement and employers, but experts say they don’t actually prove impairment.
“I’ve seen the tragedies resulting from impaired driving up close. And I have a good idea how challenging it is at the roadside to know whether someone smoked pot recently. But I believe if someone is not stoned, they shouldn’t be arrested.” Blood tests are able to show marijuana up to a month from smoking it but with this new test, if someone has smoked or eaten an edible in the last few hours it will show up just from their breath. Since julie chrisley food blog 1974, High Times Magazine has been the #1 resource for cannabis news, culture, brands and marijuana legalization laws. Cannabix Technologies of Vancouver has released its THC Breath Analyzer for “beta testing,” according to Chief Executive Officer Rav Mlait. He said his company is focused on getting field use data from its THCBA devices. This data would then be used to “shape” the Canadian process for detecting THC intoxication, he said.
“Marijuana negatively affects divided attention and executive function—brain functions that are needed for the complex behavior of driving,” she notes. As legalization of recreational and medical marijuana continues to expand throughout the U.S., so has the concern of high drivers taking to the roadways and endangering lives. Despite the fact that recreational use of marijuana is now legal in 11 states and the majority of the nation has at least decriminalized the drug, driving under the influence of cannabis remains outlawed in all 50 states– even if it’s prescribed.
Earlier this year, the Colorado Senate rejected an attempt to place a limit on the amount of marijuana allowable in a driver’s bloodstream. THC measurements were unaffected by the presence of 92 other drugs that drivers might co-ingest with marijuana, including common stimulants, such as caffeine or nicotine; painkillers, such as aspirin or acetaminophen; and illegal drugs. The results of the test may be used as evidence of an over-the-limit blood alcohol level, but many factors can affect the accuracy of a breath test. In fact, peer-reviewed studies have shown a 50 percent margin of error when comparing breathalyzer results to actual blood alcohol content.
Research by UCLA chemists found its way in Organic Letters in 2020, giving an overview of a chemical discovery that aids to create an electronic breathalyzer. The scientists applied a similar oxidation process which is applied in alcohol breathalyzers. The device removes the hydrogen molecules from THC which enables the test to detect the presence of THC.
Throughout their trials, the researchers report that their device was able to not only accurately measure the participants’ THC levels but did so without any false positives. However, Lee and Yu do acknowledge that participant size in these trials should be expanded in the future to determine how accurate those results are. To test their device, the researchers recruited 43 cannabis users (who self-administered either via smoking or consuming gummies for the trials) and 43 control participants. During different consumption intervals, the users spit into EPOCH’s collection tool and waited while it concentrated their saliva for evaluation. “The semiconductor carbon nanotubes that we are using weren’t available even a few years ago,” says Sean Hwang, lead author on the paper and a doctoral candidate in chemistry at Pitt.
Unlike a breathalyzer used to detect alcohol, police do not have a device that can be used in the field to determine if a driver is under the influence of marijuana. Some states believe that the threshold for THC levels in the blood should be 5ng/ml, although the limits are arbitrary, and weed can’t be viewed the same as alcohol. When it comes to drunk driving laws, there is an official guideline for Blood Alcohol Concentration – anything at or over 0.08 guarantees you’ll get a DUI. However, roadside cannabis testing isn’t possible at the moment, so police officers assume consumption based on the behavior of the driver, including saliva and blood tests. Some cannabis users are wondering whether a car breathalyzer can detect marijuana, and the answer is no.
