The same way people are pulled over for an alcohol breathalyser could be the same way people get checked for marijuana on the road.
Scientists have found a way to instantly detect THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
These scientists have found a way to measure the ‘vapour pressure’ of THC.
According to Chemical engineer Dr Tara Lovestead, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Maryland, “Vapour pressure describes how a compound behaves when it transitions from a liquid to a gas. That’s what happens in your lungs when a molecule leaves the blood to be exhaled in your breath. So if you want to accurately measure blood levels based on breath, you need to know the vapour pressure.”
Dr Lovestead’s team used a technology called PLOT-cryo (porous layer open tubular cryogenic adsorption) which uses frozen gas to identify chemicals based on the make up of vapours released into nearby air.
Dr Tom Bruno who is a co-author on the study is the one who invented PLOT-cryo eight years ago. He explained, “PLOT-cryo is an extremely sensitive technique for capturing and analysing things in the vapour phase. It was a natural candidate for this type of problem.”
Dr Lovestead is hopeful that with the research by her team, it could be the groundwork for a device that can accurately measure THC.