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

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

#91

Post by slg »

Noah_SannTek wrote: post #74
slg wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but this is just not true. People are innocent until proven guilty. If there is no evidence, then they aren't convicted (EDIT: for the record, testimony is evidence). Adding an avenue to collect more evidence is going to cause more people to be convicted. Sure, you will probably get some people exonerated, but there is no question that you will get a larger number of people convicted. I am not going to wei…

Apologies, one thing I forgot to mention is that once reasonable suspicion is established, and an arrest happens, if you aren't blowing over 0.08 for alcohol, police will request a blood test. It's possible that for frequent users, THC will show up in these blood tests even though they haven't recently smoked. If an officer screens you on our device (which only has a 3 hour window of detection) and there is no THC, t…

>It's possible that for frequent users, THC will show up in these blood tests even though they haven't recently smoked

That leaves reasonable doubt. Reasonable doubt favors the accused. If your device removes reasonable doubt, it does not benefit the accused.

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

#92

Post by Stratoscope »

> Whereas a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% (the legal limit in most states) might result in a concentration of 208 ppm of ethanol in the breath, a similarly impairing dose of cannabis results in 0.00001 ppm of the drug in breath. [emphasis added]

From personal experience, it seems to me that cannabis and alcohol have radically different effects. How can you define a "similarly impairing dose" when they are so unlike each other?

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

#93

Post by itsangaris »

Driving with an inadequate amount of sleep is almost certainly more dangerous and ubiquitous than having consumed a normal amount of cannabis (drowsy driving even causes more accidents than drunk driving). If we're going down this road, is there a similar effort to enforce and test for a minimum amount of sleep for drivers?

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

#94

Post by core-questions »

corndoge wrote: post #27
core-questions wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered respecting the professionals who keep us safe, and not assuming that they're all somehow bad people out to get good folks who just happen to be "in the wrong place at the wrong time"?

I think the motivations of most police to choose a career as a police aren't in line with the best interests of citizens

Why do you think this? Do you know many police officers, or are you operating off of narratives you've absorbed from elsewhere?

You'll note that most people angrily report their bad incidents with cops; when they're doing their job it goes unremarked. Not too far off from good IT support.

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

#95

Post by legitster »

jabits wrote: post #68
danappelxx wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Driving under the influence should be detected by professional law enforcement observation. This can be easily backed up with video footage. Then if suspected after being pulled over, tested clinically. This is not that difficult. Even if a certain level of any substance is detected and measured, level of impairment is not.

This is incredibly ticky-tacky and can lead to bad outcomes based on race, mental abilities, etc.

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

#96

Post by core-questions »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #23
core-questions wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it that they disproportionately target PoC, or are they simply smoking and driving more often and getting caught for it? Do we really expect every single crime statistic to show a completely perfect, proportionate representation of the host population's ethnic makeup?

PoC are disproportionately pulled over by police. EDIT: And that means you'll never get accurate numbers on consumption/offense rates. So using those numbers is fully questionable.

How do you know it's disproportionate? What if they're actually speeding / breaking traffic laws / driving unmaintained vehicles more often?

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

#97

Post by Whack-kneed »

svnpenn wrote: 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.

Where are the studies proving that marijuana causes neurological impairment detrimental to the operation of cars?

Can you device detect Rx painkillers and sedatives? Those are already proven to reduce reaction times etc while such studies for mj are lacking. Why don't you go after those drivers? No need to reply, the answer is quite obvious.

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

#98

Post by cmrdporcupine »

davidw wrote: post #63
cmiles74 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's legal where I live and the drivers on the road have not changed significantly. For those opposed to legal cannabis use, it's easy to blame any traffic infraction on cannabis. I don't think we have data available that backs up that hypothesis. In areas where cannabis has been legalized for recreational use, the incidence of traffic accidents has remained the same. https://www.nber.org/papers/w24417

Not opposed to legal cannabis at all, but as a cyclist, I'm very opposed to impaired driving whether it's booze, pot, or staring at a mobile phone.

I have to wonder about the combination of those two -- marijuana impairment + mobile phone (or, hell, the car stereo).

In my experience cannabis just destroys my ability to context switch effectively. Other people, not so much. Electronics in the car are already a distraction, but I suspect far worse for someone impaired.

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

#99

Post by SannTek »

tj-teej wrote: post #19

I remember reading a story about a Grandmother who ate a strong pot brownie everyday for medical reasons and it had little noticeable effect on her. We know there's a direct correlation between alcohol levels and driving impairment, but I've not seen evidence for this link with THC. Are there studies that have found this? (Please forgive my ignorance...) If someone uses X amount of marijuana (what this tech can estab…

As a few people have mentioned already, there really is not a foolproof correlation between "amount taken" and "degree of impairment" for any drug. Even for alcohol, frequent alcohol users can build up significant tolerance. In general, blood concentrations for THC are pretty good at identifying impairment for infrequent users (greater than 90% predictive in some studies), but are very inaccurate for frequent users with a built up tolerance.

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

#100

Post by andonisus »

wolco wrote: post #66
i_am_nomad wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a pretty harsh thing to say - intoxicated driving has also ruined quite a few lives.

Quite a few? Would love to see stats or at least personal stories where this was the case.

Are you serious? You need statistics or personal stories to know that people's lives have been upended by either dying themselves or having someone close to them killed or injured by an impaired driver?
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