Bedford company developing marijuana breathalyzer test to help police
BEDFORD - It's been four years since the first recreational marijuana shop opened in Massachusetts. And yet, law enforcement officials say policing those who drive under its influence remains an uphill battle.
Vox Biomedical in Bedford is about to change that.
The company, along with Cambridge's Draper technology and a team of scientists led by Dr. Scott Lukas at McClean Hospital, is developing a breathalyzer that can detect marijuana intoxication.
"With this device it goes directly from breath onto the device and we get a readout on the computer," Dr Lukas told WBZ-TV. "We can actually see those constituents, all the different compounds that happen to be in their lungs at that time."
Dr. Lukas has been studying the effects of THC, marijuana's main psychoactive ingredient, for four decades. He says driving high is just as bad as driving drunk.
"Because their ability to estimate the movement in time is also impaired," he told WBZ. "And those are things that are very critical to someone being able to safely operate a motor vehicle."
According to Dr. Lukas, officers will be able to use the VOX marijuana breath analyzer during traffic stops, just like existing alcohol tests.
"The whole point of this is to avoid the need of having to collect a blood sample, but instead we can get a breath sample. And we get a result back in about 30 minutes right now, as opposed to 5 to 10 days," Dr. Lukas said.
The test would also be able to distinguish between THC and CBD to avoid false positives.
"The way in which the device works, we would be able to completely separate out cocaine and its metabolites, from alcohol, from fentanyl, from the opiates, from THC," he told WBZ. "That is the ultimate goal is to perhaps have a device that would measure all of those simultaneously."
Dr. Lukas believes police officers could have these in their hands within the next year and a half. And while useful, Newton Police Chief John Carmichael does not think it will change much unless the state changes its laws.
"Any tool that can help us confirm that a drug is involved could be helpful," Carmichael told WBZ. "But there's still other barriers even with the technology that we have out there right now. The way our laws are, it's very difficult to take that research or that item and implement it, use it and then prepare for presenting that in a court setting."
Vox Biomedical licensed the analysis system from Draper technology company. Draper originally developed the device to analyze air quality aboard the International Space Station to keep astronauts healthy and safe.