Research & Development

study. But in majority of cases, the research was correct, according to Hill. He presented his findings during a session at Pittcon titled, “Detection of Marijuana from Human Breath by Breathalyzer-IMS.”

What’s Next?

While this particular study might be concluded, the WSU research team is not hanging up its ion mobility spectrometry testing hat just yet. The group is currently in another set of studies approved by the WSU school board to combine both breath and blood studies. This means blood samples will be taken at the same time as breath samples and see how they correlate to each other.

At the moment, a trained policer
officer/DRE is called in if someone is
driving impaired. The officer evaluates the
behavioral characteristics of the person and
then makes the call if it’s necessary to seek
a warrant from a judge to get a blood test
from the impaired individual.

In drug-impaired driving cases, successful prosecution requires the production of physical evidence at trial of a known impairing drug in blood at time of arrest. The breathalyzer would then serve as a field screening device, which would give the arresting officer solid evidence of the likelihood of finding THC in the arrested person’s blood. This evidence would justify making the request of a judge for a search warrant to secure blood for the gathering of such incriminating evidence, according to Lovrich.

Although the research team is currently in talks with the police about their new research, they’re not ready to hand it over to law enforcement at this time, as it’s still in developmental stages.

Hill said he hopes the new marijuana
breathalyzer device will be ready for police
use in the next six months to a year.

“I am quite confident that the workplace monitoring tool Prof. Hill is developing will indeed be used by law enforcement and others for THC on-site detection,” Lovrich concluded. “This device is essential in the effort to deal with the growing problem of public and workplace safety resulting from the liberalization of marijuana laws in the U.S. and worldwide.”