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posted by martyb on Saturday September 10 2016, @06:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the know-who-you-are-French-kissing dept.

This November, several US states will vote whether to legalize marijuana use, joining more than 20 states that already allow some form of cannabis use. This has prompted a need for effective tools for police to determine on the spot whether people are driving under the influence. Stanford researchers have devised a potential solution, applying magnetic nanotechnology, previously used as a cancer screen, to create what could be the first practical roadside test for marijuana intoxication.

While police are trying out potential tools, no device currently on the market has been shown to quickly provide a precise measurement of a driver's marijuana intoxication as effectively as a breathalyzer gauges alcohol intoxication. THC, the drug's most potent psychoactive agent, is commonly screened for in laboratory blood or urine tests – not very helpful for an officer in the field. The Stanford device might function as a practical "potalyzer" because it can quickly detect not just the presence of THC in a person's saliva, but also measure its concentration.

http://phys.org/news/2016-09-potalyzer-roadside-saliva-marijuana-intoxication.html

[Source]: Stanford University

[Abstract]: Small Molecule Detection in Saliva Facilitates Portable Tests of Marijuana Abuse


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday September 10 2016, @06:13PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 10 2016, @06:13PM (#400057) Journal

    Why not make the arrests and convictions based on *behavior* rather than chemistry, hmm?

    Because you don't know why the behavior is happening. Some reasons are not illegal, but are life threatening. A test can separate stroke victims from someone high on pot.

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  • (Score: 1) by Arik on Saturday September 10 2016, @08:30PM

    by Arik (4543) on Saturday September 10 2016, @08:30PM (#400089) Journal
    It's so much easier to test for a stroke than for THC however.

    And if there is any question as to someones physical state and context we need someone trained in medicine to be answering the question, not beat cops.

    Alcohol is a good wedge issue, because the idea is really at it's most reasonable there. Inebriated persons actually emit alcohol into the air around them, you can detect that without equipment, and (in large enough doses, at least) it simultaneously makes you much worse at tasks like driving but gives you a feeling of invincibility that encourages risk-taking.

    None of that is true with THC though. The one study I saw done on this, it was in the UK IIRC, had extremely stoned people driving on a closed course and they just slowed down and got over-careful, while the alcohol group didn't have to drink very much to start doing the opposite - driving at higher speeds and more recklessly.

    Anecdotally, I remember a guy I grew up with, he always had an open beer under his seat since the day he started driving. He didn't get sloshed he just nursed it, and he never wrecked, never got in trouble, perfect driving record for years. But over the years tolerance went the way of the dodo in this country and he knew it was getting more and more dangerous, and one day he just up and quit drinking. Within a week he had wrecked his previously pristine sports car, not once, but twice. The second time he ran it into one of the poles that supported the covering on his covered parking space. Had the darndest time learning to drive sober.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 11 2016, @02:39AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 11 2016, @02:39AM (#400173) Journal

      And if there is any question as to someones physical state and context we need someone trained in medicine to be answering the question, not beat cops.

      That's what paramedics are for.

      Anyway, here's my summarized position on the matter. Determining whether a driver is intoxicated by alcohol or other drug is a legitimate role of traffic law enforcement. A reliable chemical test which can be backed by an even more reliable blood test at a nearby police office is superior to expert witness testimony. (The police office doesn't have to have a good sense of smell either.) And it provides a means for a police officer to rule out some common forms of intoxication on the spot while evaluating a driver's behavior.

      Inebriated persons actually emit alcohol into the air around them, you can detect that without equipment, and (in large enough doses, at least) it simultaneously makes you much worse at tasks like driving but gives you a feeling of invincibility that encourages risk-taking.

      Or they're suffering from diabetes-caused ketoacidosis [wikipedia.org] which smells like alcohol-caused ketoacidosis. Or they're the designated driver who hasn't drunk anything all night, but had some drunk spill their drink on them or they just used an alcohol-based hand cleaner.

      and they just slowed down and got over-careful

      Which is in itself a dangerous condition, so sure, the police can ticket for that. But the behavior also indicates that they are driving while intoxicated which looks to me to be more dangerous even in the absence of obvious dangerous driving behaviors.

      Within a week he had wrecked his previously pristine sports car, not once, but twice. The second time he ran it into one of the poles that supported the covering on his covered parking space. Had the darndest time learning to drive sober.

      Recovering from severe alcoholism is not an easy thing. But I can't help but wonder what the point of the story is. Driving while drunk may be less incapacitating than driving while in the early stages of recovering from severe alcoholism, but it's not better than driving sober.

      • (Score: 2) by Arik on Monday September 12 2016, @03:05AM

        by Arik (4543) on Monday September 12 2016, @03:05AM (#400484) Journal
        "Recovering from severe alcoholism is not an easy thing."

        But that's not what was going on here. This guy was not a 'severe alcoholic' by any stretch of the imagination. I never once saw him drunk. He'd sip on a beer, on the weekend nights he'd be out roughly 9 hours, from ~6-3am, and drink maybe 3 beers in that time. Weekdays he drank even less. Only in todays absolutist 'zero tolerance' nightmare would anyone even consider calling that an alcoholic. He could probably have blown legal on a breathalizer at any time, but he still would have gone to jail for driving with an open container.
        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 12 2016, @01:49PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 12 2016, @01:49PM (#400697) Journal
          Sure. I don't believe it, but you can make whatever claims you want on the matter. All I can say is that he doesn't behave like someone who isn't a severe alcoholic. First, he's drinking all the time, including behind the wheel. That's at least a two six pack a week habit plus whatever he was drinking while you weren't looking. And two, he immediately got into two vehicle accidents when he quit which indicates a severe behavior change which just doesn't happen if he drank very little in the first place.

          Bonus points for saying he wasn't driving sober, but he wasn't driving drunk either. I get that there's some space between alcohol-free and falling down drunk. But you shouldn't be driving at that level of lack of sobriety, if you're far enough along that spectrum that your behavior changes when you stop drinking behind the wheel.

          This also shows one of the problems with using behavioral observations to ticket someone for driving while intoxicated. They might be able to hide a severe impairment from casual observation. After all, this guy had you fooled even after he wrecked his car twice.
          • (Score: 2) by Arik on Monday September 12 2016, @03:55PM

            by Arik (4543) on Monday September 12 2016, @03:55PM (#400770) Journal
            "I get that there's some space between alcohol-free and falling down drunk."

            Yes, there absolutely is. Alcohol has very different effects at different dosage levels, and users of alcohol often regulate their dosage very precisely, even if only subconsciously. In some people, low concentrations of it can actually *improve* results on motor skills tests. The high strung nervous type sometimes becomes accustomed to using very small amounts of alcohol to 'settle down' and relax and their performance on all kinds of tests will improve with low levels of alcohol.

            --
            If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?