Inside the high-tech quest to tell if someone's driving stoned

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View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions  02.20.22   SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE    Driving While Baked? Inside the High-Tech Quest to Find Out There is no scientific way to tell if you're stoned behind the wheel. That's a problem for police—and you. One company is aiming to fix that. BY AMANDA CHICAGO LEWIS | 21-MINUTE READ There's currently no "Breathalyzer for weed." Police can use an electronic sobriety test to easily discern whether somebody operating a motor vehicle is under the influence of alcohol, but no such technology exists to determine whether a person is driving under the influence of marijuana. Sure, the authorities can draw some blood and look for the presence of THC—the chemical in weed that gets you high—but even that is not a true indication of a person's mental state, because people who smoke a lot of cannabis (aka stoners) usually always have some amount of THC in their blood. The chemical can linger in the human body for days or weeks, long after the high has worn off. So if you're a pot smoker who's been pulled over for a traffic violation where the cop suspects you're driving high, there's little you can do to prove you're sober. Cognivue is aiming to change that. The company sells a testing device that looks like a laptop and runs a software program that can measure a person's cognitive ability. The device was originally developed to test for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, and now it's being used in clinical trials to see if it can also detect whether or not someone is baked. In her feature on Backchannel, Amanda Chicago Lewis reports from the Cognivue trials in Colorado. She meets the stoners who are putting the device to the test, as well as the specially trained law-enforcement officers—called Drug Recognition Experts—who claim to be able to beat the machine and tell stoned from sober without the aid of technology. If they're right, the company's efforts would take a massive hit. And if they're wrong, Cognivue could get one step closer to saving thousands of people from unnecessary arrest. Michael Calore | Senior Editor, WIRED     Recreational Virginity and the False Promise of Artificial Hymens BY NEDA TAGHINEJADI | 7-MINUTE READ What happens when an unstoppable social construct collides with an immovable patriarchal myth?     Can You Be an NFT Artist and an Environmentalist? BY CHARLOTTE KENT | 8-MINUTE READ Blockchain art's carbon footprint is massive. Artists who care about the climate are trying new experiments.     The Best Way to Learn Online? Be a Lurker BY PAUL FORD | 5-MINUTE READ The internet has made me immune to a coherent narrative. In order to truly understand anything, I've taught myself to read networks.   SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE   Jacques Vallée Still Doesn't Know What UFOs Are BY CHANTEL TATTOLI | 17-MINUTE READ After six globe-trotting decades spent probing "the phenomenon," the French information scientist is sure of only one thing: The truth is really, really out there.     The Science of Heartbreak BY FLORENCE WILLIAMS | 5-MINUTE READ Death and disease increase after divorce. Journalist Florence Williams, mourning the end of her own marriage, investigates why.     Welcome to the Great Smushing BY ZAK JASON | 7-MINUTE READ Digital technologies and Covid have collapsed our identities into mush—a condition that's likely to outlast the pandemic.     The Case of the Creepy Algorithm That 'Predicted' Teen Pregnancy BY WIRED IDEAS | 8-MINUTE READ A government leader in Argentina hailed the AI, which was fed invasive data about girls. The feminist pushback could inform the future of health tech. GET WIRED Presidents' Day Sale. Give yourself the gift of information. Get the print edition of WIRED and exclusive subscriber-only stories for just $29.99 $5. Subscribe now.         Have questions or comments? Reply to this email.   This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions