Pubdate: Fri, 22 Apr 2016
Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Hamilton Spectator
Contact:  http://www.thespec.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/181
Author: Camille Bains
Page: A15

NEW B.C. APP CAN TEST FOR THC

As Canada prepares to legalize marijuana, police anxious for device 
to measure impairment

Companies developing breathalyzers to detect marijuana's main 
psychoactive ingredient in suspected cannabis-impaired drivers appear 
to be entering a crowded field as Canada prepares to legalize pot.

Health Minister Jane Philpott announced Wednesday at a special United 
Nations session on drugs that legislation to begin the process of 
legalizing and regulating pot will be introduced next spring.

A University of British Columbia engineering professor is the latest 
to create a breathalyzer she says can detect THC levels in the breath 
of someone who has smoked pot.

Mina Hoorfar said Wednesday that the hand-held device, about the size 
of two fingers together, can help police detect the chemical in a 
driver's breath within seconds, unlike blood analysis or spit tests, 
which are not immediate.

She said the "microfluidic breath analyzer " costs about $15 to 
manufacture and is blue-tooth enabled so people can monitor their own 
THC levels with a cellphone.

"The sniffer," as she also called it, is superior to competing 
breathalyzers because it is highly sensitive to pot's major 
high-inducing component, Hoorfar said.

False positives are a problem with other devices "because any other 
odour can interfere with THC. With ours we separate all kinds of 
molecules. There won't be any false positive with ours."

Hoorfar and her colleague, PhD student Mohammad Paknahad, are in the 
process of applying to a university ethics board for a clinical trial.

Hoorfar said the device can detect THC on someone's breath for about 
12 hours but she and Paknahad are trying to push that up to 24 hours 
with their prototype.

Canadians suspected of driving while impaired by marijuana or other 
drugs face the same penalties as those who get behind the wheel after 
consuming alcohol.

The Criminal Code says a driver's blood sample may be taken under the 
direction of a qualified medical practitioner and that anyone who 
refuses or f ails to comply with a demand to provide a sample commits 
an offence.

Kal Malhi, president of Vancouver-based Cannabix Technologies, said 
his company has raised millions of dollars to bring its marijuana 
breathalyzer to market.

He said the legalization of marijuana in Canada means police must 
have the right tools to get impaired drivers off the road for 
everyone's safety.

"Law enforcement has been hungry for it," said Malhi, who was a 
Mountie in the Vancouver area from 2000 to 2009. "Society needs 
something like this, just like it needed the alcohol breathalyzer."

Malhi said Cannabix is leading competitors in North America and is 
working with the University of Florida to conduct clinical trials 
before aiming to get it approved in the United States and Canada.

The company conducted 100 tests using six medicinal marijuana 
patients in Vancouver last year, he said, with 80 per cent accuracy 
before switching to another technology to get better results.

"We were the first to take on the technology and understand that THC 
can be detected in breath," he said. "We know intimately what's 
involved, how to detect it, how quickly THC evaporates from your 
system and the need to capture that quickly after an offence or a 
roadside offence.

"We have been flooded over the last 12 months by different states and 
different law enforcement agencies asking us to pilot-project our device."

At least three other devices have been developed in the United States 
in the quest to perfect a marijuana breath test - at Washington State 
University, by Lifelock Technologies of Colorado and Hound Labs of 
Oakland, Calif.

Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Colorado have legalized recreational 
and medicinal use of marijuana while residents of 19 other states can 
take pot for medical purposes only. In Washington, the maximum THC 
level allowed for drivers is five nanograms per millilitre of blood.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom