breathalyzerBreathalyzers used to measure alcohol are fairly common and are used when drivers are pulled over under suspicion that they might be driving under the influence of alcohol. So what about being under the influence of something else, such as marijuana? While several states have since legalized its use, driving while you’re high is obviously still a big no-no.

However thanks to researchers at Stanford, they have managed to develop a breathalyzer that will be able to measure exactly how much THC is in your system. In case you did not know, smoking marijuana releases THC into your body, and THC will actually remain in your body for up to a month, meaning that you could get pulled over and have THC detected in your system for a joint that you smoked two weeks ago.

The “potalyzer” is developed by Dr. Shan Wang and his team and it uses magnetic biosensors to detect THC molecules that are present in your saliva. The saliva sample will be mixed with antibodies that are bound to THC molecules and are used as markers. It is then loaded onto a device which then determines how much THC you have in your system based on how many antibodies bind to the THC on the test strip.

This means that while technically you still have THC in your system, it could be low enough where it does not impair your judgement. However as Stanford notes, the legal limit will be determined by state laws as some have no set limit, while others do.

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