Can’t wait for this device. My daughter is breathing the contaminated air from HVAC in my condo complex from all the potheads that live in the building. Great job guys looking forward to buying this and have the property management screen suspects.
Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
181–190 of 421 posts
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#182I'm sorry, but I'll have to state my discontent with your product. Firstly, I question it's usability from the beginning. How accurate is it? Can you get something similar to a BAC with it? Also how often/likely is it that a false positive will happen? More importantly I fear that the "Cannabis Breathalyzer" will become like a polygraph, which can't tell whether your actually lying or not, but is merely used as a tool by police that's used against people. Comparing Alcohol to Cannabis also isn't right. These are vastly different chemicals with different effects on people. Over ~10000 people died in 2017 from alcohol impaired driving[0], can anything remotely similar be said of Cannabis? Don't get me wrong driving under the influence of any drug can be dangerous, and is why on most prescription bottles you'll have a "Do not operate heavy machinery" warning on it, but that doesn't stop everyone on medication from driving. Prohibiting Cannabis has caused much grief in the past that this tool, without accurate results and proper use, is likely going to cause more harm than good. If anything it will probably just help increase the incarceration rate to meet the status quo.
[0] https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/...
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#183Great job to the founders, awesome to see more cool companies out of the UW nano program. Curious why all the negativity, perhaps people are unaware that cannabis actively DOES impair driving to dangerous levels. Also, as this startup is from Canada I'm almost certain the mindframe of the founders is to develop a device that makes legalization EASIER, not allowing police to use it catch and arrest people on the stree…
Please cite actual statistics and studies that prove cannabis impairment danger.
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#184Great job to the founders, awesome to see more cool companies out of the UW nano program. Curious why all the negativity, perhaps people are unaware that cannabis actively DOES impair driving to dangerous levels. Also, as this startup is from Canada I'm almost certain the mindframe of the founders is to develop a device that makes legalization EASIER, not allowing police to use it catch and arrest people on the stree…
Do you have any proof that cannabis impairs driving?
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#185The 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.
There is certainly a lot of confusion surrounding the effect of cannabis on driving. I would check out the report linked below. It provides a really good list of studies on cannabis and impairment along with summaries.
https://mass-cannabis-control.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01...
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#186This is the first time I've ever hoped for the complete failure of a company featured in Launch HN. This is an ill-conceived solution to exacerbate an existing injustice: uneven prosecution of laws in the War on Drugs. Shame on you.
Thanks for you comment, and we certainly respect your opinion. Being conscious of the impact of our device on groups that have been historically target by police is something that is on our mind a lot. I think it is important to recognize that the way drug impaired driving is tackled today is very subjective. Police administer an field sobriety test that involves walking in a straight line, standing on one foot, and…
Your response here directly conflicts with what you say in the opening paragraph.
Response to my comment:
>"our device it not assisting police it arresting people for owning or even selling cannabis, just using it before driving."
Product desription from original post:
>"... we're imagining a world where there are one of our devices in every police car in North America."
And it sounds like a dystopian nightmare. This isn't about improving anything but getting a slice of the pie that serves the law enforcement industrial complex. The same one that disproportionately targets minorities and those without the means to defend themselves in court.
And that's just the intended use case, much less other use cases that it's applied to.
Truly awful product idea that will make society much worse off.
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get that breathalyzers give you a nice simple, relatively objective number to point at, but shouldn't we be testing for actual impairment rather than the presence of chemicals which may or may not be an indicator of impairment?
Yes, in an ideal world we would do that. But by the time we come up with a perfect test that can be done roadside by police to determine driving impairment, that has very few false positives and holds up in court, we'll most likely have self driving cars and this won't be an issue anyway. I understand that everyone reacts differently to different drugs. Dale Earnhardt can probably be a little tipsy and still drive be…
Lots of behaviors impair your driving ability. A study found that being dehydrated caused the same number of driving errors as being drunk [0]. I'm sure it would be easy to make a field sobriety test for blood water content, but they don't, because safety isn't the real reason these laws get made. It's just public pressure to enforce moral values.
[0]: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11547199/Not-dr...
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
..yes? Is it some trick question?
No, all the published articles I've read come from testing people who've been in a MVC, who were also at fault. With plenty of confounding variables as well. I'm specifically looking for a dose dependent study that shows level of THC intoxication has positive correlation with driving impairment. With a large sample size. Hopefully from some group not looking to prove something.
I just know how a high works on me, and I'd never drive in that condition. It would be really bizarre if a drug that effects behavior/motorics would make no difference on driving. A cursory search shows the issue has been studied for a while too:
https://www.nap.edu/read/18942/chapter/9#114
Certainly there are people who would say it has no effect on them. Met people who thought a few beers makes them better drivers, too.
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#189Why some people seem to relation this with war on drugs? If weed was legal, I wouldnt want people driving high as a kite either, if anything this legitimizes the use of marijuana by regulating it just as alcohol.
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Would an improved field sobriety test be a more appropriate product than an improved breathalyzer? Yes, do you have such a test?
No, but I'm also not the one selling breathalyzers either. I was merely offering a hypothetical product that people could work on that would both meet the need this company identified and satisfy most of the complaints from the community here.
I'm not sure what this hypothetical product would measure. Driving ability? If so, what if it was found that that would discriminate against classes of people? How do you gauge driving ability anyway? I would probably win a formula one race against my wife, but she's much better at paying attention to the road on long, boring stretches of highway. But I can't imagine that it's easy to test for that.
Meanwhile, this product tests for something that's easy and simple. Have you recently used marijuana? It gives a yes or no (and presumably a level of some sort). It's not the perfect test, but it seems like a fallacy to argue against this test on the basis of a better test that doesn't currently exist.