|
 Law enforcement agencies will require breathalyzers to detect
marijuana as they are "faced with the necessity of stopping more and
more motor vehicles being operated under the influence of THC," said
Brett Meade, a retired police chief and a senior program manager for
Washington-based non-profit group the Police Foundation.
Nearly a dozen U.S. states allow recreational marijuana consumption
and 33 states permit pot for medical use. But all states prohibit
driving under the influence of marijuana.
Oakland, California-based Hound Labs is one of the companies
developing a breathalyzer to detect THC - the component in marijuana
that gets people high - and plans to market it in 2020.
Construction companies could be a big part of its market, said Hound
Labs Chief Executive Officer Mike Lynn.
"Nobody wants a crane operator 50 stories up to be smoking a joint,"
he told Reuters.
Lynn, a physician, said pregnancy tests, which can detect minute
quantities of hormone, inspired him to tackle the challenge of
measuring THC on users' breath.
Separately, Cannabix Technologies Inc based in the Vancouver suburb
of Burnaby is testing a pair of devices at different price points.
Its THC Breath Analyzer could be cheap enough at a few hundred
dollars per unit to potentially allow parents interested in testing
their teenager before turning over the keys to the family car, said
Cannabix CEO Rav Mlait.
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The U.S. court system would need to consider how to treat evidence
from THC breathalyzers.
Assuming a motorist who tested positive with a THC breathalyzer was
impaired behind the wheel could be "problematic," said Stanford
University law professor Robert MacCoun.
Unlike with alcohol, scientific research has not yet established
firm correlations between the amount of marijuana people consume and
how impaired they become, MacCoun said in an email.
Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, expressed similar concerns.
But he welcomed breathalyzers as an improvement over existing tests
used by police and employers, such as urine analysis that is unable
to determine whether marijuana was used recently with the potential
for impairment, or days or weeks in the past. Breathalyzers are
likely to only detect a user who consumed cannabis within the last
few hours.
"A test like that would frankly make sense," Armentano said. "Just
like we wouldn't allow employees to have a couple drinks and show up
to work."
(Additional reporting by Jane Ross in Newark, California; editing by
Bill Tarrant and Bill Berkrot)
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