Pot Breathalyzer Could Distinguish Users From Impaired Drivers

With marijuana advocates doing their part to legalize the leaf across the United States, many lawmakers feel pressured to arm local and state law enforcement agencies with a device that can accurately detect stoned driving. Over the past year, several tech companies have come forward with breathalyzers they claim can gauge marijuana impairment, but only one has argued the ability to distinguish between a regular user and a high driver.

Over the summer, High Times published a report on Cannabix, a Canadian company that invented a marijuana Breathalyzer that could supposedly determine if a person had consumed pot within the past two hours. Marijuana supporters, however, emerged skeptical of the device’s accuracy, sizing it up as just another failed attempt at addressing the stoned driving conundrum.

Then last week, at the National Marijuana Business Conference in Las Vegas, the Cannabix people showed up to officially unveil their version of the pot breathalyzer, which they refer to as a “non-invasive drug impairment recognition system.”

Rav Mlait, the founder and CEO of Cannabix Technologies, told Mashable that the company is still in the process of developing the prototype, but they anticipate bringing it to market sometime in 2015. “We’ll be targeting the states that have zero tolerance for having THC in your system,” he said, adding that the company plans to “make it available for retail use as well.”

So, is the Cannabix Marijuana Breathalyzer destined to become a law enforcement standard? While it is still too early to tell, the company believes their product will prevail where others have failed because “instead of looking at consumption which may have occurred anywhere from a day to three days prior to testing (as is the case with saliva testing for cannabinoids),” the device “should allow law enforcement to see if drivers have consumed THC within two hours prior to getting behind the wheel,” according to a press release.