How This App Can Help Test Cannabis Impairment In Drivers

A psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts says hes developed a tablet-based app that can help determine cannabis impairment in drivers. Now, hes trying to get it into the hands of law enforcers.

Developer Michael Milburn says DRUID, an acronym for driving under the influence of drugs, asks users to complete a range of tasks in five minutes.Tasks include tapping the screen in certain places when they see different shapes, stopping a clock after60 seconds have passed, following a moving circle on the screen with a finger and standing on one leg with the tablet in one hand.

While Milburn hasnt published any peer-reviewed studies on its effectiveness, he said theapp has been tested with cannabis-impaired subjects and he wasable to track impairment scores as they climb and decrease.

I could see marijuana legalization was coming eventually. Prior to now, people had no way to really know if they were impaired or not. One of my hopes in this is to create a responsible community of drug users, Milburn told The Boston Globe.

DRUID is intended to fill the gap made by both the lack of devices for testing cannabis impairment and a lack of an accepted standard, like the .08 blood ...