Source: CFN Media
CFN Media Group (“CFN
Media”), the leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the
North American cannabis industry, announces publication of an article
discussing the complex issues surrounding marijuana-impaired driving and
the efforts of Cannabix Technologies (CSE:BLO) (CNSX:BLO)
(BLO.CN) (OTC:BLOZF) to provide a solution to the problems with testing
for impairment. The company has advanced its Beta 3.0 Cannabix
Marijuana Breathalyzer through several stages of development, hoping to
solve the issues surrounding accurate and convenient testing of THC
levels.
As legal cannabis use, both medicinal and
recreational, spreads farther and wider through both Canada and the
United States, one public health concern continues to vex those
responsible for regulating public safety. In essence, nobody knows what
constitutes impaired driving under the influence of cannabis, what blood
levels of THC are acceptable, or even how to accurately test those
levels and correlate them with impairment. Compounding the problem is
the lack of public awareness of the dangers of drugged driving.
Alcohol vs. Cannabis Impaired Driving
Alcohol-impaired
driving is fairly straightforward in terms of testing, and well
understood both by the public and by safety officials. Due to years of
scientific study and public awareness campaigns, and to the obvious
nature of alcohol impairment, everyone recognizes the dangers and knows
the legal limits of alcohol use when it comes to driving. Anything more
than one drink an hour and you are risking not only your life but the
life of others, as well as legal peril. Either the alcohol is in your
bloodstream or not, and there are formulas that can be used to determine
the rate at which the body metabolizes alcohol.
Cannabis
impairment is not as simple, for a variety of reasons. The plant has
been illegal for so long that scientific study has been severely
lacking. For instance, regulators are just now realizing that THC
metabolizes into various forms in the body, some of which are detectable
for weeks after using marijuana.
Cannabix issued an update recently stating,
“Marijuana contains several cannabinoids in addition to THC. Many of
these have shorter half-lives and are metabolized in the body relatively
quickly. THC can be detectable in blood for weeks, whereas metabolites
such as 11-hydroxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and
11-nor-9-carboxy-tetrahydrocannabinol are only detectable for a few
hours after consumption of cannabis. The Cannabix FAIMS device has
demonstrated the detection of THC and related metabolites in MS (mass
spectrometer)-coupled testing. The detection of THC and its metabolites
in human breath provides for real-time pharmacokinetic analysis. Such
analysis provides a method for the identification of “recency of use”
and also provides analysis of frequent users of marijuana who tend to
retain THC in their body for longer periods of time, relative to
infrequent marijuana users who tend to clear THC from their body more
quickly. This data and analysis will be important for an eventual court
approved device.”
As the science slowly catches up with reality,
conflicting studies have been published regarding how much marijuana
use impairs drivers. In fact, the US National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration published a study in 2015 indicating that stoned drivers
are about as likely to get in a wreck as sober drivers. At the same
time, the state of Washington’s Traffic Safety Commission announced that
marijuana use doubles the risk of being in a fatal crash. It’s no
wonder that public sentiment is much more tolerant of driving while high
on cannabis than it is of driving while drunk on alcohol.
Need for Reliable Testing
Regardless
of where regulators come down on the issue of acceptable levels of THC
and impaired driving, one glaring need remains. Accurate, portable,
non-invasive testing is still a fairly elusive target. As Sarah Urfer,
president and owner of ChemaTox lab based in Boulder Colorado, put it,
“Testing for THC in whole blood isn’t actually that hard. Where the
issue comes is with interpretation and roadside testing.”
Last
year, the Canadian federal government studied the effectiveness of
roadside saliva tests.
While the tests were easy to use and
non-invasive, their accuracy (especially in cold weather) is
questionable at best. In fact, 80% of the positive results came in
weather colder than the manufacturers’ recommended temperature range.
Even after the saliva test, a blood test is still required for further
analysis and more accurate results.
Cannabix Technologies
believes it has the answer to this part of the problem. The company’s
Cannabix Marijuana Breathalyzer is being developed to work both
independently in the field and in the lab when coupled with a mass
spectrometer. This is important since confirmation of field tests by lab
spectrometry will likely be essential for the tests to meet regulatory
standards.
The breathalyzer also incorporates a specialized
breath temperature stabilizing component that overcomes issues
surrounding testing in cold weather. Without this level of reliability
in a variety of temperatures and environments, any testing protocol may
well prove useless and subject to legal challenges. Additionally, while
waiting for a backup blood test, cannabis blood levels decrease up to
80-90% in the first hour after use but THC is still impacting the brain.
Getting the test right the first time, in a laboratory-verifiable
manner, is essential to providing the best solution.
The
company, law enforcement, politicians, advocates… everyone agrees that
there is an urgent need to settle on an acceptable method for roadside
cannabis testing as legalization spreads across North America. “We’re in
the infancy with this, and it’s very much an unknown since we don’t
have the data,” Greenwood Village Colorado Police Chief John Jackson
said. “We spent 25 or 30 years figuring out where we were with alcohol,
and finally got to breathalyzers. There is no field test for marijuana
yet.” Cannabix Technologies may have the answer, stay tuned for further
developments.
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