Roadside sobriety tests and attitudes toward a regulated cannabis market

[Tokyo-expat]

Research
.
Roadside sobriety tests and attitudes toward a regulated cannabis market
Alison Looby1 , Mitch Earleywine1 and Dale Gieringer2
1University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Ave, Department of Psychology, SS 369, Albany, New York, 12222, USA
2California NORML 2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114, USA

Harm Reduction Journal 2007, 4:4 doi:10.1186/1477-7517-4-4

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/4/1/4

Received 26 October 2006
Accepted 31 January 2007
Published 31 January 2007

© 2007 Looby et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


Abstract

Background

Many argue that prohibition creates more troubles than alternative policies, but fewer than half of American voters support a taxed and regulated market for cannabis. Some oppose a regulated market because of concerns about driving after smoking cannabis. Although a roadside sobriety test for impairment exists, few voters know about it. The widespread use of a roadside sobriety test that could detect recent cannabis use might lead some voters who currently oppose a regulated market to support it. In contrast, a question that primes respondents about the potential for driving after cannabis use might lead respondents to be less likely to support a regulated market.

Methods

Phone interviews with a national sample of 1002 registered voters asked about support for a regulated cannabis market and support for such a market if a reliable roadside sobriety test were widely available.

Results

In this sample of registered voters, 36% supported a regulated cannabis market. Exploratory chi-square tests revealed significantly higher support among men and Caucasians but no link to age or education. These demographic variables covaried significantly. Logistic regression revealed that gender, ethnicity, and political party were significant when all predictors were included. Support increased significantly with a reliable roadside sobriety test to 44%, but some respondents who had agreed to the regulated market no longer agreed when the sobriety test was mentioned. Logistic regression revealed that ethnicity and political affiliation were again significant predictors of support with a reliable sobriety test, but gender was no longer significant. None of these demographic variables could identify who would change their votes in response to the reliable roadside test.

Conclusion

Increased awareness and use of roadside sobriety tests that detect recent cannabis use could increase support for a regulated cannabis market. Identifying concerns of voters who are not Caucasian or Democrats could help alter cannabis policy.



Research gives reason to sweat drug tests
New process can detect nicotine, cannabis, methamphetamine

JONESBORO, Ark. - Drug detection as easy as taking a swipe of someone's sweat could someday be in the hands of law enforcement, thanks to research conducted at the Arkansas Biosciences Institute at Arkansas State University.

"The hardest problems in science are often solved with just one question," said Robyn Hannigan, associate professor of chemistry and physics at ASU.

During testing of tobacco smoke, fellow researcher Roger Buchanan asked Hannigan to develop a test that would allow him to measure the amount of nicotine absorbed by lab rats. He wanted a test that was a lot faster than traditional tests that required a blood sample to be analyzed.

Hannigan and her students developed a swipe test to allow a drop of saliva or sweat to be measured.

"Then we thought, 'Hey, if you can do this for a drug like nicotine, why not cannabis or methamphetamine?' It turns out you can," Hannigan said.

Hannigan patented the process and is now working to develop it into a working model for human testing. She and her company, Hyphenated Solutions Inc., have begun pursuing Federal Drug Administration approval for the technique and grants from the National Institutes of Health.

"The possibility is one day a police officer, school official or doctor will check for the presence of drugs in minutes instead of hours," she said.

Hannigan and partner David Clark, president of HSI, have decided to market the ideas they create by answering the questions asked by other scientists. Their company grew out of another case that led the ABI researchers and lab students to develop a conduit between two Perkin-Elmer analysis tools to facilitate experiments in tobacco smoke.

"We had a question: How do you measure the metal in tobacco smoke?" Hannigan said. "We had a machine that could isolate the smoke into elemental structures, but we had no way to get those isolated gas particles to the machine that measured the metals."

So Hannigan, three students and Clark developed a conduit between the two machines that allowed the transfer of the material while maintaining the gas state.

"It was really just us saying, 'How do we do this?' And then doing it," Hannigan said. "It was not until we started saying ... 'we did this,' that we started to realize we had something no one else had."

Hannigan contacted Perkin-Elmer and told them of the transfer line.

"We then stepped back and said 'What do we do to market this?'" Hannigan said.

Hannigan contacted the department of technology and research transfer at ASU, a newly developed component of ABI, which helped Hannigan incorporate and patent her technology.

"We formed Hyphenated Solutions Inc.," she said. "We signed a licensing agreement with Perkin-Elmer, and then we stepped back and looked for other technologies we had developed. The university owns our research, and we license the patent from ASU, and then Perkin-Elmer buys the product from us."

Led by David Clark, a doctoral student at ASU and a former Hannigan student, the company is in talks with a Midwest tribal government to test its drug-detection system.

"The group we are in contact with is really interested in using a tool like this to combat a rising methamphetamine problem on their land," Hannigan said. "They have lots of money they would bring to the development and research phase of the project. We hope down the road to have this in the back of every police car to aid in detection. It is really an exciting prospect for our little question."


As a note one of the things that has stood in the way of legalization is a tool like this to test for driving sobriety. However LE could also use this tool as probable cause to search your car. So it is definetly a 2 edged sword.

[Nagognog2]

I can see it now: The cop pulls you over. Takes out a vial with a cotton-swab soaked in cobalt thiocyanate solution. And writes DOPER on your forehead with the wet swab. The word DOPER appears in blue letters on your forehead. You are arrested.

Later on the prosecution passes the booking photo to the jury. There you are with DOPER written on your forehead in blue letters. You are convicted. Off you go to the Cheney~Halliburton Correctional Facility to make labels for whiskey bottles for 5¢ an hour.

[zera]

Roadside sobriety tests are notorious for type I errors. There was a famous piece of research where researches videotaped a sample of completely sober people and put them through the roadside sobriety test (you know, stand on what foot and touch your nose, stuff like that). Despite all the participants being sober, after showing them to traffic police I think they assessed something like 60% as being intoxicated. I can't find the study right now, but if someone is interested I'll spend some time on google and dig it out.

The current ridiculous low BAC limit, .08, combined with the well-known unreliability of the breathalyzers mean that people who drink two glasses of wine in two hours can be convicted of drunk driving. In swim's home state, since he is under 21, all he needs to blow is a .02 to lose his license. He literally is afraid of using mouthwash or breath mints before getting behind the wheel as these things could easily push him over the limit. The system's basically set-up where a lot of innocent people get railroaded, and I am sure that the same would be done on any system designed for marijuana.