Device Invented by Graduate Students Detects Stoned Drivers

Mariam Crow and Kathleen Stitzlein are the biomedical engineering graduate students at the University of Akron who invented the “Cannibuster,” a device for the roadside testing of marijuana.

The Cannibuster is a potentially revolutionary device that uses “saliva testing and lab-on-chip technology” to detect THC concentration in merely minutes (Ackerman, 2015). While states that have legalized marijuana “have set five nanograms of THC” at the limit for drivers, there is no current way for police officers to detect this (Ackerman, 2015).

Both graduate students won the LaunchTown Entrepreneurship award for their invention and “have been promised $20,000 worth of advisory services from local entrepreneurs to partner with law enforcement in legal marijuana states” (Ackerman, 2015).

References

Ackerman, M. (2015). Graduate students invent breakthrough device to detect stoned drivers. Retrieved from http://www.thefix.com/content/grad-students-invent-breakthrough-device-detect-stoned-drivers

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