Police have long been able to gauge how drunk a driver is by using breathalyzers, and now a comparable test for marijuana smokers is being developed.
Researchers at Stanford University in California came up with a spit-based test to determine the intoxication levels of drivers under the influence of marijuana, Digital Trends reported Thursday.
Scientists at the Shan Xiang Wang laboratory at Stanford developed a “proof of concept” that uses a “magneto-nanosensor” to achieve an accurate assessment of a driver’s intoxication within three minutes. The results would then be sent wirelessly to the police officer’s phone.
Proof of concept (POC), as defined by Techopedia, is a “demonstration, the purpose of which is to verify that certain concepts or theories have the potential for real-world application. POC is therefore a prototype that is designed to determine feasibility, but does not represent deliverables.”
“Detection of marijuana from blood or urine in a reference lab is not difficult, but it is difficult or impractical at the roadside,” Professor Shan X. Wang of Stanford told Digital Trends. “Most law enforcement officers are not authorized to take blood samples, while taking a urine sample on spot is extremely inconvenient.”
“Detection of marijuana from saliva would bypass the trappings with either blood or urine samples,” he continued.
For now, it is merely a demonstrated concept, but Wang says he hopes to have the actual device in use by officers within a year.
One of the problems with conventional alcohol breathalyzers is what’s known as a “false positive,” where the test may determine a driver is drunk even though they are not. Prescription medicine and cough medicine, for example, have been known to produce these false positives.
Wang told The Daily Caller News Foundation this new test will significantly reduce false positive issues. Wang did say, however, that someone who uses marijuana on a regular basis could potentially produce a false positive, but he also said his test is very sensitive and therefore he doesn’t see that as being a big problem.
No word yet on whether or not the cotton-mouth associated with marijuana use could cause potential issues with the spit test.
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