Just when you thought it was safe to go on a roadie, Johnny Law finds a new way to ruin everything
Back in my younger, more reckless days, I’d take roadtrips down lonely stretches of highway with a steamroller full of some of the best (or mediocre) weed known to man, zoning out to whatever music I felt best set the mood.
Now, thanks to the efforts of a retired Canadian Mountie, cops will be able to crack down on all slow rides with the use of a new breathalyzer designed to detect marijuana on a driver’s breath.
Known as the Cannabix Breathalyzer, the device claims to be able to tell if drivers toked up within the previous two hours. The device is still in the field testing phase according to reports, so drivers don’t have to clean their ashtrays out just yet.
Co-inventor Kal Malhi worked in the drug enforcement division for four of his 10-year career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. According to buzzkill expert Malhi, many drivers aren’t afraid to drive stoned simply because they don’t believe they will get caught.
“People are becoming very afraid to drink and drive nowadays because they feel that they will get caught and charged, but they’re not afraid to drug and drive because they don’t feel that law enforcement will do anything about it,” Malhi told CTV News.
This has been an ongoing issue for law enforcement due to the fact that weed can stay in someone’s system up to a month, making any testing unreliable, since, to date, there has been no effective way to determine exactly when someone got stoned, or whether they were stoned while driving, which is the information they want.
Currently in Canada, cops have to rely on field sobriety tests in order to bust stoned drivers, but again, this is unreliable, since in many instances, the only actual indicator that someone MAY be high could simply be a pair of bloodshot eyes and a familiar aroma. Penalties in many jurisdictions mirror that of driving drunk, even though there is no actual concrete evidence that driving stoned results in an increased number of accidents.
There is a greater chance that someone stoned will sit too long at a stop sign, thinking it’s a stoplight than there is that the stoner will drive recklessly. However, it is technically still impaired driving, and if people are (rightly) getting pinched for driving sleepy, the laws have to apply to weed as well, at least in some form.
The problem with the Cannabix Breathalyzer is that the inventors want the device to be used in more than just traffic stops, with Malhi hoping the device will also be used in workplaces where drug testing is conducted, which will only serve to persecute those who choose to get high, even as laws everywhere head towards legalization or at the very least decriminalization.