---
title: "This Startup Created a Marijuana Breathalyzer"
description: "A startup developing a marijuana breathalyzer just secured funding through Y Combinator, one of the world's top accelerators."
date: "2019-08-14"
modified: "2019-08-14"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/marijuana-breathalyzer-startup"
categories:
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "breathalyzer"
  - "cannabis"
  - "Law enforcement"
  - "the digest"
---

# This Startup Created a Marijuana Breathalyzer

![A startup developing a marijuana breathalyzer just secured funding through Y Combinator, one of the world's top accelerators.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/marijuana-breathalyzer-startup.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: SannTek/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Driving While Stoned

If a police officer suspects you've had too much to drink before getting behind the wheel of your car, they can use a breathalyzer to estimate your blood alcohol level on the spot.

But if a cop thinks you're driving stoned, they currently don't have any evidence-based way to immediately confirm their suspicions — they typically have to rely on subjective roadside sobriety tests.

Now, though, Canadian startup [SannTek Labs](<https://www.sannteklabs.com/>) says it's developed a marijuana breathalyzer — and it's [caught the eye](<https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/13/y-combinator-bets-on-a-startup-building-a-weed-breathalyzer-for-cops/>) of top startup accelerator Y Combinator.

## Money Matters

SannTek just secured funding as one of Y Combinator's Summer 2019 startups for its SannTek 315, a device that analyzes the molecules on a person's breath to determine the amount of marijuana they've smoked within the past 3 to 4 hours (it's not clear whether it can detect the consumption of vaping or edibles).

"We are specifically detecting Delta-9 THC, which is the predominant psychoactive component of cannabis,” SannTek CEO Noah Debrincat [told *TechCrunch*](<https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/13/y-combinator-bets-on-a-startup-building-a-weed-breathalyzer-for-cops/>), later adding, "We know that if people are driving with high concentrations of that in their system, their psycho-motor skills are seriously decreased."

## Stamp of Approval

SannTek plans to sell its marijuana breathalyzer to police for less than $1,000, but only if its current talks with U.S. transportation officials go as planned.

"The only way that a police officer will buy this is if NHTSA, the National Highway Transportation Safety Association, puts its stamp of approval on it," Debrincat told *TechCrunch.*

**READ MORE:** [Y Combinator bets on a startup building a weed breathalyzer for cops](<https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/13/y-combinator-bets-on-a-startup-building-a-weed-breathalyzer-for-cops/>) \[*TechCrunch*\]

**More on weed breathalyzers:** *Cheap Drug Breathalyzers Are on the Way, if We Can Figure out How to Use Them*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)

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