In order to detect irresponsible drivers and sanction them, law enforcement officers employ various tools such as breath analyzers to detect alcohol in a person’s system or rapid drug tests that can respond to specific markers for cocaine, marijuana, and other drugs.
The alcohol content in the blood is closely related to alcohol-related impairment.
Prosecuting someone who legally used marijuana the night prior due to having THC detected in their breath the next morning is neither fair nor productive for law enforcement whose resources and man hours are stretched thin as they are.
With more states planning similar legislative changes, there is now an important need for developing technological solutions that distinguish between impairment and mild intoxication with THC.
Furthermore, THC’s metabolites — the byproducts of THC after the body’s metabolism breaks down the drug — can last in the bloodstream for weeks after cannabis use, well beyond the period one could be deemed intoxicated.
Testing strips or breath analyzers can only tell you if a person used marijuana, but not how much, how recently, or how intoxicated the user truly is.
Those who reported feeling intoxicated after being given oral THC also showed an increased oxygenated hemoglobin concentration — a type of neural activity signature from the prefrontal cortex region of the brain – compared to those who reported low or no intoxication.
“Identification of acute impairment from THC intoxication through portable brain imaging could be a vital tool in the hands of police officers in the field,” said A.
The research did not assess the practicality of using this method for assessing impaired driving, but it’s easy to see how this could be useful to law enforcement.
“Companies are developing breathalyzer devices that only measure exposure to cannabis but not impairment from cannabis,” says Gilman.
In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines.