Live data from Hacker News

Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis

news.ycombinator.com

51–60 of 421 posts

Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis

#52
post #16

The war on drugs has ruined literally millions of lives: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs#Arrests_and_incarcer... with all due respect, I hope you fail miserably.

This is not about the war on drugs, this is about making roads safer. Driving under the influence is illegal whether the influencing drug is legal or not.

Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis

#53
post #3

>we're imagining a world where there are one of our devices in every police car in North America. Sounds like a terrible world honestly.

I wonder, if we got the opportunity to talk to the folks that invented the alcohol breathalyzers, if they had the same kind of pushback? Alcohol breathalyzers help deter drunk drivers, but there is nothing currently out there to help deter cannabis-impaired drivers. There's definitely an education piece associated with this.

Maybe, but also comparing driving under the influence of alcohol with driving under the influence of cannabis is definitely not congruent.

Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis

#55

Is the pro-thc crowd really so focused that they would prefer impared drivers be untestable?

You're missing the point that the war on drugs is racist, oppressive, expensive and counterproductive. Adding technology does not improve any aspect of that. FWIW I do not think driving high is safe at all, but I don't think it's a serious problem either (by the numbers).

Except your defensive "war on drugs" reaction is not really applicable here, as this product is being developed in the context of an environment where cannabis consumption is 100% legal (Canada).

Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis

#56

I for one wish you the best of luck, and hope you develop an effective and accurate product. While I may have conflicting feelings about police municipalities and the justice system, the breathalyzer has overwhelmingly been a good thing, and has saved countless lives by keeping the roads safe. Questions: - What do you think the likelihood/timeline is that these tests will eventually be comparable in speed and accurac…

Hey! We appreciate the support, and I hope that this response will highlight the fact that we're engineers by trade, and are completely data-driven. We're not going to be selling anything, until there's the peer-reviewed research to back it up. Here's where we're at:

- Speed isn't so much of a problem. Accuracy is by-far the most important piece of this puzzle. I think it will be between 12-18 months until we see real, robust, repeatable science to discuss the accuracy of testing in breath.

- Legal implications of a cannabis breathalyzer are all based on two things: 1. use cases and 2. geographic location. Whether the device will be used for pre-arrest or post-arrest is something we're working on understanding better.

- There is a lot of work still to do on determining our false-positive rate. We're actually going to be doing an IRB approved human trial later this year, and we'll report back to you with our findings and the full report!

- Regarding open sourcing our tech- to be honest, we haven't really thought about this yet. Might be a good way improve transparency? We're definitely not opposed!

- That's also a great question. Our tech is most useful in places where it's already legal. So that's where we'll start.

Hope this helps!

Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis

#58
post #6

Do you struggle with the ethics of assisting in the arrest of, in my state, 90% minorities for a crime with dubious safety grounds?

This is a really important topic, and we were hoping someone would bring it up. Our device is designed to output objective results to shift the burden of proof from subjective observation to the output of a device. We would expect the number of false positives to decrease as a result of our device. With that being said, we're also allocating a significant amount of our resources to have full-time employees, with live…

What a naive answer. A more perfect device is not preventing what OP is asking you.

Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis

#59
post #36

Is the pro-thc crowd really so focused that they would prefer impared drivers be untestable?

How about they test for actual impairment before legally declaring you impaired?

This would actually be an easy technical solution, if laws could be passed to allow it. Basically a driving simulator with a handful of reasonable surprises. If you avoid them you’re declared not impaired.

Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis

#60
post #16

The war on drugs has ruined literally millions of lives: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs#Arrests_and_incarcer... with all due respect, I hope you fail miserably.

This is not about the war on drugs, this is about making roads safer. Driving under the influence is illegal whether the influencing drug is legal or not.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN