Does this test for edibles? If a user has THC in their blood stream but not from their lungs, will this show up? Alcohol is absorbed through the stomach, passed through the bloodstream and released through the lungs. Since THC is fat soluble, I can't imagine it interacts the same way to allow for breathalyzer testing of people who have taken edibles.
Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
211–220 of 421 posts
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#212>A similarly impairing dose of cannabis results in 0.00001 ppm Yeah this isn't going to work. The detection threshold is so low it's gonna go off if someone is smoking weed within 500 feet. There will be so many false positives it will practically be a divining rod. Police already abuse sniffer dogs frequently, we shouldn't allow them to use another unreliable tool to arrest people.
Also
>We haven't had enough resources to run any formal trials yet to publish data, but that is changing this year.
So, ok. See you after the trials?
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#213>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.
No, it sounds like a much better world than the one we're in now. Smoking pot impairs motor skills, and driving with impaired motor skills kills people.
Few people would be in favor of taking away alcohol breathalyzers from law enforcement, and rightly so. Giving the police access to cannabis breathalyzers is no different. Once they are in every police car in the world, few people would want to take those away too. This world can't come soon enough, IMO.
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#214Can I ask why you went this way - and what the benefits are of your specific approach? With a friend having done this in the past - having sold his technology, I've been more than a little interested in this.
Currently companies like Hound Labs have a breathalyzer test with high success rates (70% according to news reports). Israel (as a country) has two different spit tests that they've been using 'in production' (i.e the police) since 2018, both apparently in the 80% range, and as a bonus handles 5 different types of narcotics. Then there's the Drager DrugTest 5000, already deployed with law enforcement agencies at (apparently) a very high success rate.
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 th…
I think maybe you misunderstood @wolco's point? I think what they are saying is that, for example, you might do all of your testing on college age males and find that it doesn't give any false positives for people who smoked yesterday but not today. But you still need to test it on 60 year old women to make sure it doesn't give false positives there. In other words, you need to test it for varying lengths of time and also to make sure that it has consistently acceptable results by race, sex, weight, age, etc.
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#216So many naysayers here, many of which probably aren't sharing the road with cannabis consuming drivers in a region where it is 100% legal like here in Canada. I've consumed it many times, and I know how impaired I'd be behind the wheel. It terrifies me to think of all the idiots who are probably out there driving while stoned, pretending they're "perfectly fine." EDIT: cool, these guys are around the corner from wher…
Clever how you use the phrase these guys to underscore your belief that what they're doing is a good thing. I, on the other hand, agree with the other commenter that "it sounds like a terrible world honestly", and I have a negative view of this startup. I would probably something formal to describe the people working there, just like I would people working at Elsevier.
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even alcohol breathalyzers are regularly miscalibrated or defective and found to produce false positives. Legal pressure from manufacturers keeps this quiet. https://www.zdnet.com/article/draeger-breathalyzer-breath-te...
That is why many states follow a positive breathalyzer test with a blood test. In my state, you can refuse them both, but you lose your license temporarily for doing so. I think that's fair. I understand some are skeptical about giving blood to the police, but if you can't prove you're not drunk or high after a positive reading on a less accurate device, then you aren't allowed on the road. The risk is too great for…
In Texas, you receive a mandatory suspension for refusing just a breathalyzer, even if you are found to not be over the legal limit, or are never convicted of a DWI. Blood tests are then often obtained via warrant (and it's typical to have a judge "on call" to sign and fax those orders on demand)
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#218I'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…
> I have a prescription for this. Let's see that ... oh, come now, you do not have a family doctor named Robert N. Marley!
I'm not sure what you're on about, prescriptions for marijuana are a thing...
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#219I'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…
Thank you for your feedback. It is really valuable to get the perspective of a frequent cannabis user. Cannabis tolerance is definitely a huge factor in determining whether or not someone is impaired. As a daily user, I am sure you are fine to drive after having used cannabis (although this is not legal advice :) ). However, people forget that there are significant tolerance effects for alcohol as well. There are peo…
Thanks for your reply and engaging in this sort of discourse. I agree with all of your points, and also feel that technology in this area can help in conjunction with other indicators and tests to determine dangerously impaired driving. Any improvement over the existing testing methodology and legislation where some blood concentration possibly present from the week prior serves as enough for a felony conviction seems well warranted!
Re: Launch HN: SannTek (YC S19) – Breathalyzer for Cannabis
#220[deleted]