Marijuana legalization is making impressive
headway, but now states must face a different problem when it comes
to one of America’s favorite drugs—driving while stoned.
The limitations of current tests used to determine if someone is
impaired by marijuana are well documented. Hair, saliva, and blood
tests all may indicate if someone has consumed marijuana recently,
but they do a poor job of determining whether someone is actually
high or not. The Marijuana Policy Project reported
that:
“The inability to accurately measure marijuana impairment is why
both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the
National Institute on Drug Abuse have stated that marijuana
impairment testing via blood sampling is unreliable.”
Despite this, Colorado has persisted in its law that 5 nanograms
of THC per milliliter of blood is enough evidence to convict
someone of a DUI. Many states where medical marijuana is legal such
as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Nevada have an even lower cut-off of 2
nanograms. Jacob Sullum, senior editor at Reason, profiled
all the problems associated with such an antiquated means of
measuring marijuana impairment in the July 2014 issue.
A new device called the Cannabix may offer a much-needed
solution to this problem. Vice
reported that the breathalyzer, being developed by a Canadian
police officer named Kal Malhi, will theoretically be able to
detect whether someone had smoked marijuana in the past two hours.
A study
published last fall in the peer-reviewed medical journal
Clinical Chemistry demonstrated the plausibility of
such a test. The research concluded that:
“Breath may offer an alternative matrix for testing for recent
driving under the influence of cannabis, but is limited to a short
detection window (0.5–2 h).”
If the Cannabix is all that it is cracked up to be and is
actually capable of determining whether someone is too high to
drive, then the pot-loving community should support its
implementation in law enforcement. Having a legitimate means of
measuring marijuana intoxication would unclog court dockets, lead
to safer roads (even though
traffic fatalities have decreased since marijuana was
legalized), and allow cannabis consumers to travel unencumbered by
the fear of getting pulled over by a cop that could potentially
give them a DUI even though they are stone sober. It might also
provide a nudge for states on the fence about marijuana
decriminalization and/or legalization.
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