“Hound Labs’ goal is a practical, fair solution, that works just like the breathalyzers you have seen used on television.”

“We aren’t measuring impairment, we’re measuring THC in breath where it lasts a very short period of time, providing objective data about THC in breath to law enforcement and employers to use in conjunction with other information they have gathered,” said Hound Labs founder Mike Lynn, an emergency room doctor, reserve deputy sheriff and venture capitalist.”

“Lynn stressed that his mission is one of fairness. He says he has a more equitable approach for both police and employers than to test with blood and urine, where chemical compounds found in cannabis known as cannabinoids are detectable long after a person is high.”

“As marijuana is starting to be legalized recreationally in many places, the new device has been labeled a “game-changer” by experts aiming to eliminate driving under the influence of the drug.”

“The increased use of marijuana and some illicit drugs in the United States along with the results of this report, point to the need for rapid and sensitive assessment tools to ascertain the presence of and impairment by marijuana and other illicit drugs.”

“Marijuana is legal, as is alcohol,’ said Hound Labs’ Mike Lynn. ‘But we’re not allowed to drink beer and drive, and there’s an absolute reason why people are not allowed to smoke pot and drive.”

“Having a marijuana breathalyzer that — for the first time — can focus on those people who have used pot in the last few hours, it transforms the ability in a fair way to determine who’s potentially impaired and who isn’t.”

“’We don’t want to know what you did a week ago, or two weeks ago, because it doesn’t impact your impairment today,’ said Warren Tolman, director of business development for Hound Labs.”

“The difficulty with [blood testing] is police typically need a judge’s approval for a search warrant, and then need a trained phlebotomist to draw the blood, a process that can easily take a couple of hours.”

“The thing that’s groundbreaking about this test is it can distinguish recent use from historic use,” Mr. Boxer said. “An employee in many states has a legal right to use cannabis.”

“A test like that would frankly make sense,” Armentano [deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws] said. “Just like we wouldn’t allow employees to have a couple drinks and show up to work.”

“It’s a game changer,” said John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has written extensively on marijuana legalization.