A wake-up call to every marijuana-using drivers: A new tool added to police devices that can determine whether you’re high behind the wheel.

There has been an increase in road crashes between 5.2 percent and 6 percent in four states with legalized recreational marijuana. One research also discovered that 20 to 30 percent of accidents happened due to marijuana use.

Traditional Checkups

Traditional police practices included rituals like checking effects of marijuana on the body to find out the marijuana-impaired drivers. These traditional signs of marijuana include bloodshot eyes, lack of activity, unwarranted laughter, dizziness, increased appetite, and slow, foggy memory.

Does Marijuana Signs Prove You High?

All these signs would also result from fatigue, random giddiness, or missed meals. Here it gets harder for officials to catch marijuana-impaired drivers. There has been no foolproof roadside method to detect a drug intoxication state.

California Highway Patrol used the sobriety tests judging physical coordination and mental acuity to suspect drunken drivers or even marijuana-impaired drivers.

Some law enforcement agencies also have a Drug Recognition Expert who can be directed to the scene to conduct a quick roadside assessment. Furthermore, several tests were carried out at the station if necessary.

How Can A Cop Prove Your High?

After testing for THC content in the bloodstream, a person high on marijuana can only be proven as a driving lawbreaker. There is no such portable machine that helps determine the THC content in drivers roadside. The person can be accused as a marijuana-impaired driver after the false-positive result of THC metabolites versus the actual THC intoxicant.

Until now, Draeger, Inc’s new tool called Dräger DrugTest 5000 will result in a fast and accurate driver’s state.

About The Tool

Dräger DrugTest 5000 can foster a driver’s state assessment. It has a mouth swab to determine whether or not a driver is high on marijuana. It can also accurately measure oral fluid samples for abuse drugs such as amphetamines, designer amphetamines, opiates, cocaine and metabolites, benzodiazepines, and methadone.

It has already been deployed at checkpoints in Los Angeles, San Diego, and New York City, and in parts of Arizona and Nevada. This would help to decrease the ratio of drug-impaired drivers and car accidents. This tool would also prove to be a plus point for law enforcement after the legalized pot has given rise to several multibillion-dollar businesses in the U.S.





