A company in Victor is working on an impairment test for marijuana.
Law enforcement advocates have said that legalizing marijuana will make roads less safe. Currently, most sheriff’s offices use drug recognition experts to certify whether an individual is impaired at time of traffic stop or incident.
However, objectors have said that the system is hardly perfect- granting a subjectivity to law enforcement without having a concrete test.
The test would be similar to the breathalyzer test that’s used to determine alcohol impairment.
The company is called Cognivue, and is owned by Tom Golisano.
“We don’t have a scientific level of marijuana in your system, or THC in your system—that experts agree—we can all agree that you’re impaired or intoxicated. We don’t have that,” Executive Director of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police Patrick Phelan told News10NBC.
The system would apparently utilize a series of tests, which would allow the officer on-scene to determine how well a driver’s brain is working. “Most of the solutions before law enforcement today are really revolving around the recent use of a drug, of a substance, clearly marijuana, while, but we are looking at is… Is that person impaired by that marijuana?” Kristin Weber of Cognivue added in an interview with News10NBC.
The company has been testing the product in other locations, but not in an official capacity with law enforcement.
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