Volunteers Smoke Cannabis to Aid in Police Training

Californian police have asked cannabis consumers to intentionally consume cannabis in order to help them better identify drivers who are under the influence.

According to CBS Los Angeles a greenlab study in Glendale, Califronia is helping officers and toxicologists determine what amounts to impairment in order to take a stand against smoking and driving. “Approximately 75 percent of the DUI arrests that I make nowadays are drug impaired—more with cannabis than alcohol,” Glendale Police Officer Bryan Duncan told CBS Los Angeles.

Volunteer consumers in the study took field sobriety tests at the beginning of the night, then went into a tent and consumed cannabis. After enough time had passed, the subjects took the same tests so that officers could see if there were any mental or physical changes.

It is important to know what studies to look for with intoxication, “whether it’s lack of convergence in the eyes, divided attention issues, your ability to do two tasks at one time,” Duncan added.

“I think we have some detection tools that are out there,” said Chris Halsor, founder of Understanding Legal Marijuana, who started this process in Colorado. “There are a lot of questions of ‘do we need better tools out there?’ The science is severely lagging behind the policy, in part because it still is illegal federally.”

According to America’s Cardroom, these tests have shown law enforcement officers in Colorado that not every cannabis case can be treated the same way, as there are varying levels of intoxication. These kinds of studies can actually help drugged driving enforcement be more fair.

Considering that many current cannabis drug tests are considered unfair ways to gauge intoxication it is no surprise that more honed and specific methods for cannabis testing are coming about. As legalization picks up speed, better ways to test for intoxication will follow.