Yup, You Just Smoked Weed! New Testing Method Confirms Recent Cannabis Use With 96% Accuracy, Federally-Funded Study
As marijuana becomes mainstream, it is important to find a way to determine a person’s recent consumption. This is something that scientists have been trying to figure out for a while now, but just recently may have come up with an appropriate and accurate methodology.
The new techniques have been described in a paper published in the Clinical Toxicology journal. The driving simulation study was partly funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
“Since THC accumulates and lingers in fat tissue, daily cannabis users may maintain constant elevations of THC in the blood even long after the psychoactive effects abate,” said Michael Kosnett, MD, MPH, an associate adjunct professor and cannabis researcher at the Colorado School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health.
Officially, there’s no definite or reliable scientific method of determining if a person behind the wheel is impaired, as common blood drug tests used by law enforcement usually measure delta-9 THC (or just THC) – the main psychotropic component of cannabis. The problem with measuring THC alone is that THC remains in a person’s system long after impairment has faded or disappeared. Judges overseeing DUI cases rely on police reports and assignments, which means responsible cannabis users can end up with fines, fees and other legal penalties.
People who use cannabis daily, like medical marijuana patients, can have very high THC levels in their blood, even though they may have built …