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

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191–200 of 421 posts

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

#191
How confident are you that the results will indicate a level of impairment, rather than a particular concentration of THC?

Other substances contained in cannabis have significant synergistic effects with THC; are you going to look for other cannabinoids and the presence of terpenes?

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

#192
post #4

Sounds like it’s well-intentioned, but I’m afraid that given the incentives of all parties involved here, and the complexity of the technology, there will be a lot of false positives. It’s obvious that the police will want a device that produces more convictions, no point in disputing that. I’m wondering if you can elaborate on what incentives your company has to produce accurate devices, against your customer’s unst…

It makes me wonder how breathalyzers work. If you fail, I assume the police still need to analyze a urine sample to prevent false positives. But probable cause is established with a breathalyzer failure.

It depends on the jurisdiction. In general, the police begin with a roadside test. This is either an standard field sobriety test (walking in a straight line, touching your nose, etc) or a screening breathalyzer. If the person fails, they are arrested and taken to the station for further testing. This is either performed using a more accurate breathalyzer, or a blood test. In general, suspects can choose which test they want (blood or breath).

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

#196
post #29

Great 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?

Here is a good overview of dozens of studies that have performed on subject.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722956/#S3titl...

The tl;dr is Cannabis absolutely impairs the core skills you use when driving, but also raises your awareness of your impairment so those under the influence tend to drive more cautiously. The result is in simulator studies cannabis shows a clear negative effect, but in functional studies, its more of a wash.

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

#197
post #4

Sounds like it’s well-intentioned, but I’m afraid that given the incentives of all parties involved here, and the complexity of the technology, there will be a lot of false positives. It’s obvious that the police will want a device that produces more convictions, no point in disputing that. I’m wondering if you can elaborate on what incentives your company has to produce accurate devices, against your customer’s unst…

> It’s obvious that the police will want a device that produces more convictions

If a defendant ever challenges the use of the device, an inaccurate (particularly, false-positive-producing) device is more likely to be thrown out discrediting the device class, not just the individual case, and potentially forcing after-the-fact dismissal of prior convictions.

So, avoidable false-positives isn't necessarily an approach consistent with maximizing convictions.

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

#198
post #85

Is someone driving high dangerous?

Driving impaired in any way shape or form is dangerous. https://www.dailycamera.com/2016/06/09/affidavit-teen-driver...

you cannot conclude from that article that driving under the influence of cannabis is dangerous.

The literature on this is .... not great.

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

#199
post #61
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What’s keeping you in check? It's going to be fairly easy to test this. You take one group of people who haven't smoked in the last few hours and you test them. Make sure it doesn't go off. You take another group who have smoked (I'm sure plenty of college students would be happy to sign up for this trial) and you test them, make sure it does go off. It's pretty simple. It's a machine with an empirical number, so y…

It is not that simple. Within the control group of non-smokers you need people who smoked yesterday or 12 hours before to determine if the testing is successful. But even that is too simplist. You need to activity give a specific dose to a group with similiar profiles. You need to test with different profile groups. Remember we are testing currently high not has been high.

The basic functionality of a breathalyzer is to take a given volume of an exhale and measure the concentration of a given particle as an indicator of intoxication. So long as an individual's results are greater than or equal to 0.08 then it becomes an unacceptable risk and they are considered intoxicated. If this process is going to test in a similar way, there is no need to test specific doses or profiles because the concentration isn't variable, it's a static amount. With alcohol, we don't consider weight, or what they had to drink, or how long they've drank so why should this be any different? All that needs to be defined is what the law considers a concentration which should represent a level where the risk reaches an unacceptable percentage.

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

#200

I've been a daily cannabis user for over a decade. I have a prescription for this, like millions of others with prescriptions for psychoactive medications without driving limitations. Would you send someone to prison for driving because they took their Adderall that morning? Cannabis is not like alcohol in regard to impairment of motor function and decision-making under the influence. Surely the same concentrations o…

There's nothing wrong with having a prescription for marijuana, even if the "prescription" is really just a state medical license provided by a sketchy doctor that you slip 200 USD once a year.

But please stay off the roads while you're under "psychoactive" effects (read: high) . There are LEGAL drugs that are illegal to use while operating a motor vehicle.

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