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Cannabis Impairment Testing: App Aims To Be 'Gold Standard'
DRUID, an app developed in the US, aims to become the 'gold standard in impairment testing'. In fact, they're already claiming the title. So how does it work?
In two sentences - the app requires you to complete a number of tasks measuring cognitive and performance abilities. Resulting in an assessment of the your potential impairment.
In other words, it's a video game to test how high you are.
Impairment score hours after ingesting cannabis orally of through a vape (source)
Another report tells us the app is also currently being tested by the Massachusetts police department, and being used in studies at Yale and Washington State University.
The app itself is no frills. Complete the task, receive a score, let the officer decided whether to charge you with a DUI or not. That's what $1.7 million in government funding gets you.
An app which replicates classic physical impairment tests conducted by officers, or investing money into further researching legitimate cannabis breathalysers that will done day accurately test for cannabis impairment.
Let's allow the US government make that decision. Whoops, looks like they already have.
From our perspective, it's improbable an app like this will be in widespread circulation throughout any state or national police force, here or in America. But rather a waiting game until researchers develop functional cannabis impairment testing technology.
We're all looking forward to the day you'll see an covering that on Pondering Pot.
You can read more about the app on the DRUID website.
DRUID has been designed to measure cognitive and behaviour impairment for any cause including consuming drugs or alcohol, lack of sleep, or injury.Their claim to fame comes from a study conducted by Jack E. Richman, a professor at the New England College of Optometry. In early 2019, he decided to test the capabilities of DRUID. And so, their team rounded up a bunch of volunteers to get drunk, and then test their impairment through the app. The results - unsurprisingly, the drunks earned themselves far worse scores than their sober counterparts. But we already have a breathylyser that tests alcohol impairment quite accurately. So what's the big deal? It's the research coming out of Johns Hopkins Medical School and University of Colorado Boulder (UC Boulder)only study we found, the results are yet to be posted. Surprisingly, they only managed to get 47 volunteers to participate in their drinking study. In the UC Boulder study, the results clearly show the effectiveness of determining the subjects impairment whilst high on cannabis.
Impairment score hours after ingesting cannabis orally of through a vape (source)
Another report tells us the app is also currently being tested by the Massachusetts police department, and being used in studies at Yale and Washington State University.
The app itself is no frills. Complete the task, receive a score, let the officer decided whether to charge you with a DUI or not. That's what $1.7 million in government funding gets you.
An app which replicates classic physical impairment tests conducted by officers, or investing money into further researching legitimate cannabis breathalysers that will done day accurately test for cannabis impairment.
Let's allow the US government make that decision. Whoops, looks like they already have.
From our perspective, it's improbable an app like this will be in widespread circulation throughout any state or national police force, here or in America. But rather a waiting game until researchers develop functional cannabis impairment testing technology.
We're all looking forward to the day you'll see an covering that on Pondering Pot.
You can read more about the app on the DRUID website.Share this article
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Mike Frigger
Mike is the founder and editor of Cannaus. With over a decade of experience in cannabis journalism, he's an advocate for legalising cannabis and covers much of the cannabis journey in Australia.