A technology company is working with UF researchers to create a Breathalyzer-like device to detect marijuana use.
Richard Yost, a UF chemistry professor and the head of UF’s Analytical Chemistry Division, got a patent about five years ago for his high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer, a device that measures what a person has consumed through his or her breath.
Cannabix Technologies Inc. contacted the professor last Fall about adjusting his idea to test for marijuana.
To find if someone has smoked marijuana, the device would detect traces of THC, the active ingredient of cannabis.
The Yost Research Group, which the professor heads, is composed of several graduate students, he said. He doesn’t know how long it will take to create.
Yost said he hopes the device, when made, will help police.
“I doubt that it will be directly marketed to consumers,” Yost wrote in an email.
Yost also said the marijuana detector could help with early detection of fatal diseases, such as lung cancer.
Alexandria Hernandez, a UF chemistry sophomore, said she is excited to work on the device.
“I think it’s a cool invention that has been in the works for a while,” the 19-year-old said. “They found a way to minimize error and have better accuracy. This will definitely advance our society for the better and have people be safer.”
