Pubdate: Sun, 30 Nov 2014
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Melissa Santos, The News Tribune
Page: B1

WSU TEAM WORKING ON MARIJUANA BREATH TEST

A team at Washington State University is working to develop a breath 
test that could quickly determine whether a driver is under the 
influence of marijuana.

Law-enforcement officers already use preliminary breath tests in the 
field to estimate drivers' blood alcohol content. But no similar 
portable tool exists to test for marijuana impairment using a breath sample.

Stoned drivers have become an increasing concern since Washington 
voters legalized recreational use of marijuana in 2012. A quarter of 
blood samples taken from drivers in 2013, the first full year the 
initiative was in effect, came back positive for pot.

WSU chemistry Professor Herbert Hill said that existing technologies 
- - including those already used by airport security and customs agents 
to detect drugs and explosives - can be re-purposed to test breath 
for THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana.

Hill said he and WSU doctoral student Jessica Tufariello are working 
on a handheld device that uses a technique called ion mobility 
spectrometry to detect THC in someone's breath.

Right now, officers and prosecutors rely on blood tests to determine 
how much active THC is present in a driver's blood. Those test 
results aren't immediately available to patrol officers who suspect 
someone is driving high.

Initiative 502 set 5 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood 
as the legal limit at which a driver is automatically determined to 
be impaired.

Initially, the marijuana breath test under development at WSU 
probably won't be able to pinpoint the level of THC in the body; it 
will only tell officers that some active THC is present, Hill said.

Still, Hill said such a tool could prove helpful to officers as they 
decide whether to arrest a suspected impaired driver.

"We believe at least initially that it would lower the false 
positives that an officer would have," Hill said. "They would have a 
higher level of confidence in making an arrest."

Law-enforcement agencies still would have to obtain follow-up-test 
results to use as evidence in court, just as they do after a positive 
preliminary breath test for alcohol impairment.

Hill said he and his research team plan to finish laboratory tests 
with a prototype marijuana breath test this year, then start testing 
human breath between January and June 2015.

After that, the researchers plan to test a version of the device out 
in the field, he said.

Some lawmakers at a Nov. 21 meeting of the Senate Law & Justice 
Committee appeared impressed by the research.

"WSU is going to be at the forefront, it seems to me, of supplying 
this kind of science and the technology that's based on it to police 
all over the country," said Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle.

Bob Calkins, a spokesman for the Washington State Patrol, said the 
agency would "welcome anything that will help us get impaired drivers 
off the road."

He said the State Patrol wouldn't want to use any new technology 
until it is fully developed, though.

"It needs to be rock solid before we'll adopt it," Calkins said.

Some state officials have expressed concern about increasing numbers 
of drivers testing positive for marijuana impairment since the drug 
was legalized in Washington.

In 2012, 18.6 percent of blood samples taken from suspected impaired 
drivers in Washington tested positive for active THC, according to 
the Washington State Toxicology Laboratory.

That number rose to 25 percent of tested blood samples statewide in 
2013, the first year I-502 was in effect.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom