Stoned drivers beware. Cops may soon use a handheld device to determine if a driver is under heavy influence of marijuana.
According to a Bloomberg
report, a team of researchers at Washington State University is trying
to develop a breathalyzer similar to the device used to determine
alcohol level content among drivers, except this one is for marijuana
usage. The handheld device will be able to detect if drivers have THC, marijuana's psychoactive component.
Herbert Hill, a chemistry professor at Washington State University,
leads the research team to develop the handheld device, according to News Tribune.
Hill is collaborating with Jessica Tufariello, a doctoral student
from the same university, to develop the device that uses ion mobility
spectrometry, a technique used to detect the level of THC in human
breath.
Although the prototype of the device could not identify the exact
amount of THC, Hill remains confident that the technology they are
developing will assist police officers to determine whether THC is
present.
“We believe at least initially that it would lower the false
positives that an officer would have,” Hill told the News Tribune. “They
would have a higher level of confidence in making an arrest.”
Police officers are hampered by protocols to determine if a driver is THC impaired. According to a 2012 study
conducted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine of the National
Institutes of Health, it takes 24-hours to get the results of blood
tests to find out the THC levels of marijuana users. In
most cases, police officers use traditional techniques used in
standardized field sobriety tests the most common of which is to make
them walk a straight line.
Right now, officers and prosecutors rely on blood tests to determine
how much active THC is present in a driver’s blood. Those test results
aren’t immediately available to patrol officers who suspect someone is
driving high.
The recreational use of marijuana has been legalized in Alaska,
Colorado, Oregon and Washington, but driving under the influence of pot
remains illegal.
The most law enforcers can do, like in the state of Colorado, is to
file charges against drivers who are high on marijuana using DUI penal
statutes that apply to drunk drivers.
Studies show that marijuana use leads to poor reaction time that
affects a user's hand and eye coordination, which could be dangerous
when driving. Other effects of marijuana include a blurred perception of
physical distance and time and short-term memory.
Since the legalization of recreational marijuana use, Washington has
seen a dramatic jump of 25 percent of drivers who have tested positive
for THC.
