Chemical Foundations for a Cannabis Breathalyzer: Vapor Pressure Measurements and a Pilot Breath Collection Study

Wednesday, March 10, 2021: 10:25 AM - 10:45 AM

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Description

Rapid decriminalization of cannabis by state governments has led to extensive R&D towards a cannabis breathalyzer for law enforcement use in identifying intoxication in a field environment. Several versions of breath collection devices are being marketed for the detection of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) in the breath of cannabis users. THC alone is not directly correlated to intoxication in all users, but THC, other cannabinoids and metabolites may indicate recent smoking or vaping. THC and other cannabinoids are non-volatile and chemically unstable, creating currently unsolved reliability challenges that did not exist for the alcohol breathalyzer. Additionally, while the partitioning behavior of alcohol between blood and breath is well understood due to decades of research, this correlation is not known for THC or other cannabis components. Vapor pressures provide critical information to estimate the abundance of a compound in breath and whether it is more likely to be carried by aerosol particles Our group has developed two novel instruments to measure vapor pressures of these difficult-to-measure compounds, porous layer open tubular-cryoadsorption (PLOT-cryo) and dynamic vapor microextraction (DVME). I will present cannabinoid and terpene vapor pressures made with these two instruments. We have also partnered with colleagues at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) to obtain breath samples before and after cannabis use and are examining these samples for cannabinoids, terpenes and other potential biomarkers that may specifically indicate actual intoxication from recent use. During this talk, I will discuss our pilot breath collection study and preliminary results.

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Additional Info

Keywords: Please select up to 4 keywords ONLY:
New Method,Trace Analysis,Terpenes,CBD