You don’t smoke pot openly in our country! ? But there are countries abroad where marijuana is legal. And, because it is legal there needs to be some measure to detect how much marijuana is there in a person’s body. Just like alcohol. To find a fix for it, researchers at Washington State University (WSU) are working on a breathalyzer, that would detect those levels.
And, in order to do so, they need volunteers to smoke weed. Yes, you may read that statement again to verify what’s written.
Professor Emeritus Nicholas Lovrich (Washington State University), doctoral candidate Peyton Nosbusch, and city council member Nathan Weller are the key researchers involved in the study and in the development of the breathalyzer. That device would measure the “acute exposure” to a chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the chemical causes the psychological illusions or effects) present in marijuana.
According to Inquisitr, the research would require the involvement of the individuals and these are the key pointers elaborated by Professor Lovrich,
- Prior to any smoking of marijuana, participants will be required to answer a series of questions regarding types of food and drink that they have recently ingested.
- Volunteers would then need to go to the lab at Pullman Regional Hospital where they will be asked to give samples of their blood and breath samples.
- The volunteers would then be tasked with going to one of Washington’s legal marijuana dispensaries and purchase some of the drug.
- Participants will then smoke the marijuana until they feel they have reached the point of becoming high.
- Once the high is reached, volunteers will take a taxi to Pullman Regional Hospital and give another round of blood and breath samples.
- There is one optional step that participants can do: they can meet with police officers and allow them to administer a field sobriety test.
WSU’s marijuana breathalyzer and the study are being funded by Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
The whole idea behind the development of the device is to reduce the number of accidents of people under the influence of the plant. And, if successfully implemented not only will the WSU benefit from it financially but the state would also invest in future innovations in medicines.
Wondering how much can you earn from it? Well, for the first hour the volunteer would get $30 and $10 for each additional hour of their time.
We just have one question: Where do we sign up for? Oh, another one: Is this study only for US residents?
Source: Inquisitr