GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Recreational marijuana has been legal in Minnesota now for nearly three months, and yet, there’s still no clear way to know whether someone is too drugged to drive.
That's partly because THC dissolves in fat, and alcohol in water, essentially rendering blood-alcohol content limits to drive — like Minnesota's .08 — to measure booze useless.
Still, a lot of companies are coming up with new technology to try, including one led by two Minnesota sisters.
Dr. Rosina Samadani, a health care technology entrepreneur, and Dr. Uzma Samadani, a neurosurgeon, co-founded their company called Oculogica.
The Samadani sisters recently debuted a roadside cannabis test called OcuPro, which several police departments across the country will use as part of a pilot program.
KARE 11 traveled to Gaithersburg, Maryland where its pilot program will run from about Thanksgiving through January. While there, reporter Jennifer Hoff also attended something called a "green lab," hosted by police. The labs allow marijuana users to light up around officers in a controlled setting that helps train law enforcement to spot whether someone is too high to drive.
The green labs happen several times a year. Under a tent, about a dozen people spent two, 30-minute sessions smoking marijuana to be later evaluated by police.
"I’ll be honest with you, I was excited for the cops to pay for my weed," said Sam Jacobi, who started smoking about three years ago to curb his back pain.
Longtime Gaithersburg officer Jayme Derbyshire started these labs, that still only operate in a handful of states as marijuana becomes more legal — like it did in Maryland in July.
"It’s a frustrating and confusing time. You want answers as to how to do the job well and correctly, and with regard to cannabis and impairment, we don’t have all those right now," said Derbyshire. "Our officers weren’t adequately prepared, as far as I was expecting they would be roadside, especially with regard to impaired driving."
Like other states, they rely on drug recognition experts (DRE) to evaluate suspected impaired drivers. It's observational training that, while well-researched, is time consuming, expensive and can be challenged in court due to a lack of established limits like with alcohol.
"We need other tools to be able to measure impairment," said Virginia Commonwealth University forensic scientist professor Dr. Michelle Peace, who attended the green lab in Gaithersburg. "We need robust clinical data so that we can understand what all of those challenges are, so we can better support law enforcement officers when they’re making these decisions."
Peace studies cannabis quality assurance to better protect public safety since there’s so little data about the drug still illegal under federal law, making testing for it all the more tricky.
"When it appears in the blood stream, it also disappears from the blood stream very quickly," said Peace, "so what we see is, you get a spike of the drug in your blood, potentially before you have very many effects. Giving them a THC breathalyzer when you’re right there on the scene might not really indicate that number you get about how much THC is in the blood, so we really then beg the question: What do we need to determine if someone is impaired at the time they get pulled over?"
The OcuPro is one of several gadgets Derbyshire showcased in the recent green lab. It's made only in Minnesota and is described as lightweight and easy to handle, but it's also self-administered and that can be dangerous and concerning for officers.
The device has gone through several design changes, according to Joel Sanderson, Oculogica's chief technology officer.
"We're always exploring new technologies; improving ways to keep doing things better," said Sanderson.
The highly respected Samadani sisters invented the machine several years ago. It's packed with technology like a high-speed, eye-tracking camera, high-resolution screens and a powerful computer. The user watches a 30-second video that monitors even the most minor changes in someone's eyes and determines whether their pupils are abnormal or not.
"We’re replicating the same type of results across lots of different sites, academic institutions, our own studies, and the law enforcement green labs, so a test like this, that gives more confidence and more objective data, is really helpful for everybody because it just makes the whole system more fair," said Sanderson, who trusts the latest prototype is on a path to federal approval.
"We’re hoping that the OcuPro can be to cannabis what the breathalyzer was to alcohol," said Sanderson.
In the meantime, officers will keep training, trying to be the best they can as cannabis continues to change the landscape.
"For me, I know what my limits are but not everyone is responsible like that," said Jacobi, who like all the users, got a safe ride home. They were all also reimbursed for the product they used.
Minnesota has yet to invest in the OcuPro and is instead putting its money toward a saliva testing pilot program that starts this fall. Oral fluid tests are used heavily across Australia and Europe, but haven’t been used as evidence in court anywhere in the United States — yet.
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