So I asked my friends why do they prefer smoking up over alcohol, and here are the interesting things they had to say.

“You don’t get a hangover after smoking up. Drinking alcohol is just so much effort and then you even have a pounding headache the next morning too”

“I can’t do alcohol. The vibe is so mellow after weed, and the trip for me after I drink is just too chaotic. Weed over alcohol for sure”

“Smoking up is just so easier as compared to drinking. If someone gets drunk you’ve to take care of them. After weed everyone is just in this happy state, doing their own thing. It’s much less drama too I’ve come to realise. It keeps you in your senses, so you know what’s happening but you’re in this different state too. You get what I mean?”

“I prefer weed just for the fact that the effect of it is much more subtle than alcohol. I’ve smoked up and gone for movies, concerts and what not. It’s been the best experience. There are also lesser chances of getting caught. I had once smoked up when my landlord was over for a house inspection, he just couldn’t figure out! Can’t do that when you’re drunk you know.”

However, the next time you plan on smoking up and going out, or decide to go for a drive when you’re high safe in the knowledge that the cops can’t catch you, here’s something you need to know. There may be a Weed Breathalyzer on the market soon, and with weed still illegal in the country, it may end up landing you in trouble!

The world’s breathalyzer could become a reality sooner rather than later. Hound Labs, a company developing the product, recently raised  $30 million in Series D funding. They even released a small study showing how it could work.

The company plans on launching two variants of the breathalyzers, with one meant for the “workplace” and the other for “law enforcement”. At the workplace, the breathalyzer is meant to help improve workplace safety without doing drug tests that might penalize workers who get high when they’re not working. For cops, the device is meant to allow officers to check for driver impairment with a tool that is less invasive than tests that require bodily fluids.

Like a typical alcohol-based breathalyzer, it has a mouthpiece you blow into and a digital display to show results. Breathing into it sends air flowing over carbon nanotubes thousands of times smaller than a human hair that helps identify THC molecules, even among other substances in the sample. Hound Labs says its device can accurately detect whether a person has smoked pot in the last two hours, a window many consider the peak impairment time frame. 

However, the jury on the practical application of such a product is still out. While alcohol toxication can simply be measured by a driver blowing air into a tube, testing for marijuana intake is much for difficult. For starters, the testing for pot requires blood, urine, or hair samples, and results only show whether someone has THC in their system, not whether they’re currently under the influence.

Another loophole is weed breathalyzers may only pick up THC that’s been smoked; edibles would create a pretty expansive loophole for stoners to exploit.

So the time may not be far when you come to see cops using Weed Breathalyzer’s to check if you’re high or not. So be careful when you decide to go out stoned, the night may end up with you getting caught!