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THC BREATHALYZER IN THE WORKS, EDIPURE EDIBLES RECALLED, AND MORE.

Blowing smoke

Professor Herb Hill is designing a marijuana breath test to help police detect stoned drivers.  Hill, who teaches chemistry at Washington State University, found out how tricky it can be to identify stoned drivers from a colleague in political science.

"I said, 'Why don't we have a Breathalyzer for that?' He said none exists," Hill told NPR.  "I said, 'We can probably make one.'" NPR reports preliminary testing has proven the basic concept: Hill's prototype can detect THC.  But it's far from mass implementation.  The device needs to be calibrated against blood tests to figure what it will read when a driver is legally intoxicated.  Further adjustments will account for "gender, race, body types and level of use," according to the report.

"In the beginning at least this would not be used as evidential information," Hill said.  "It would be used as screening information to help the officer say he should take a blood sample now."

Other research teams working on breath tests include Colorado-based Lifeloc Technologies; Vancouver, British Columbia-based Cannabix Technologies; and, reportedly, several teams across Europe.

Bad medicine

Denver-based marijuana edibles producer EdiPure has issued a recall for seven products that tested positive for pesticides.  The city of Denver reports any cherry bombs ( 250 or 500 mg ), sour bears ( 250 mg ), peach tarts ( 250 or 500 mg ), watermelon tarts ( 500 mg ) or mixed drops ( 500 mg ) with batch numbers ending in 1386 should be disposed of or returned to where they were purchased.  There have been no reports of illness.

The Cannabist reports this is EdiPure's fourth recall since Oct.  30, all for pesticide contamination.  EdiPure blames Gobi Analytical, the private lab that tests pesticides for the city of Denver.  EdiPure's spokesperson, Kyle Forti, told The Cannabist the company will soon release "definitive information" to back up claims that Gobi's methods are "[more] voodoo math and junk science than certified and standard scientific testing methods."

The Independent attempted to reach EdiPure but received no response by press time.  For a full list of marijuana edibles recalls, go to dpo.st/1J3Ap2L.

Keef crumbs

According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, the Poudre School District suspended or expelled at least 60 students for marijuana-related offenses this fall semester.  The district has no idea if that number is high, low or average.  State laws requiring school districts to track marijuana offenses only kicked in this July.  Previously, the district lumped in marijuana offenses with all drug offenses.  Though the district lacks information on pre-Amendment 64 marijuana offenses, the new data measurements should be effective in tracking future drug-use reduction efforts.