BOULDER, Colo. — The Boulder laboratory for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working to determine if it’s possible to make a breathalyzer that detects the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) present in cannabis, instead of detecting the ethanol present in alcohol.
“With the alcohol breathalyzer, we’re detecting the ethanol molecule,” said Kavita Jeerage, a materials research engineer for NIST. “It is a simple model. We know a lot about its properties. It’s obviously a liquid, but it’s also very easily carried in breath as a vapor molecule, a gas molecule.”
Detecting THC molecules is far more complicated.
“Tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the primary psychoactive molecule in cannabis, is a very large molecule,” said Jeerage. “It’s a complicated molecule, and it has not received as much study, and that’s partly because it’s a very difficult molecule to study. Its properties are challenging to measure.”
Denver7’s Ethan Carlson