NORFOLK, Va. — Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University are working to create a faster and more effective breathalyzer for THC.
That's the component in cannabis products most associated with psychoactive effects.
Virginia’s marijuana laws have changed a lot in the last two years, and while marijuana possession is now legal in the Commonwealth, driving while high is not.
Currently, officers don’t have an exact way to measure a driver’s impairment if they are under the influence.
Alcohol breathalyzers are able to give that reading within minutes and one research team at VCU looks to do the same for THC.
Right now, if police pull you over and run tests to see if you’re driving while high, it could take hours to get those results back from a lab.
With this new THC breathalyzer the team is working on, they’d get the results back in minutes, differentiate between THC and CBD and get fewer false positives.
“With this approach, we could reduce the number of accidents caused by impaired drivers, making roads safer for all of us,” Dr. Emanuele Alves said. “When a device like this is public, drivers know that they can be caught using marijuana, and this could act as a deterrent for people considering using marijuana before getting behind the wheel. This is a similar effect to alcohol breathalyzers, which have been shown to deter drunk driving.”
According to a study from Boston University, the percentage of car crash deaths in the United States involving cannabis has doubled between 2000 and 2018.
Mario Lorello, a criminal defense attorney, said this device could lead to more DUI arrests.
"There’s really not anything police officers have available to them that will instantly tell them whether or not someone has been using marijuana," he said.
He said at the moment, officers have to rely on what they see and smell.
Right now, there is no number equivalent to blood alcohol content to indicate a driver is impaired because of marijuana use, which can make it hard for a DUI case to stick, according to Lorello.
"When it comes to alcohol, we know what a .08 is, we know what a .15 or a .16 is and expert toxicologists are able to come in and very candidly explain to the court or explain to the juries what that effect will have on someone. The science is still kind of out, so to speak, as far as marijuana is concerned. You might draw someone's blood with marijuana in their system, but there's disagreement among the scientific community what a specific number means as it results to whether or not someone is impaired," he said. "Someone who smokes marijuana very regularly might be able to have higher concentrations of THC in their system and not feel the effects that someone who perhaps doesn't often would have."
However, through the number in the currently available blood test, a toxicologist could testify which symptoms were likely present.
"You have to first prove they used the marijuana, but you also have to prove that they used it to an extent where it caused them to be impaired meaning their driving behavior was affected."
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, says they do not agree with the development and eventual use of THC breathalyzers. They say opting for performance-based tests is a better option.