If you were planning on enjoying the newly-ratified legalization of marijuana in your state by lighting one up and getting behind the wheel, you might want to think again.
A group of researchers/narcs at Washington State University are reportedly developing a “weed breathalyzer,” which will work exactly like the one police currently use to measure blood alcohol content. This one will instead gauge the amount of THC in your system, with five nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood constituting a positive test.
The test has been deemed necessary thanks to a sharp increase in drivers operating while impaired since pot was legalized in Washington, where blood tests of impaired drivers have seen use jump from 18.6 percent in 2012 to 25 percent in 2013. Marijuana is now legal in four states (Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and Colorado) as well as D.C. and will likely gain traction in many more over the next several years, so now is probably a good time to start figuring out how to curb this troubling trend.
[via Fast Company]
