Minnesota Tries New Roadside Impairment Test To See If You Used Pot In The Last ‘Couple Of Hours’

Recreational marijuana is legal now in Minnesota, and the Office Of Traffic Safety is trying to figure out how to detect if someone is driving high on cannabis or any other drugs.

Alcohol breathalyzer tests have been used for years, but there hasn't been anything used roadside to determine if someone is drugged driving. New products have been made available to law enforcement that can detect if someone has used marijuana.

I was reading an article from FOX9 that has a quote from Mike Hanson, the Office Of Traffic Safety:

We're not looking to find somebody who used 10 days or 14 days ago. We're looking for somebody who used within the last couple of hours

The tests will screen for six different drug categories from cannabis to opioids. A pilot program is underway now that will be used for data-gathering purposes. For the time being, these will be voluntary tests and won't be used to make arrests.

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How does the test work?

If someone is showing impaired driving, the officer will do a field sobriety test, and the officer can ask the driver to swab their mouth. They'll get results in 5 minutes.

Are you still high if you used cannabis two hours ago?

Here's a legitimate question. How long after you consume cannabis will the test show a positive result? The cutoff drug level for marijuana used in a Michigan pilot program was set at 25 ng/ml. How do you know how high you are at that rate?

Obviously, you shouldn't consume cannabis before you get behind the wheel, but how long exactly will it stay in your system?

Related: What Are The Most Fatal Highways In Minnesota?

According to Healthline, a cannabis high can last anywhere from 2 to 10 hours depending on how much and the method you use to consume it.

Smoking, vaping, or dabbing highs typically last between 1 to 3 hours. It also depends on a user's tolerance.

If you take an edible, go to sleep, and wake up eight hours later will it show up on a test?

We'll have to see what comes out of this pilot program.