A California company is making a breathalyzer for marijuana

Breathalyzer.
(Image credit: FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP/GettyImages)

Starting next year, law enforcement officials and curious smokers alike will be able to buy marijuana breathalyzers, NBC Bay Area reported Tuesday. Hound Labs, a start-up based in Oakland, California, developed the product in anticipation of the Golden State's legalization of recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, 2018.

Hound Labs' breathalyzer measures the amount of THC — the main psychoactive compound in marijuana — present in a person's breath. The device could revolutionize law enforcement's ability to accurately identify stoned drivers, as other methods of testing like urine tests and hair tests do not account for how long the drug has been in a driver's system, NBC Bay Area explains.

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Kelly O'Meara Morales

Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.