New Breathalyzers Could Detect a Wide Range of Drugs

We'll need high-tech breath mints

The police already have fairly sophisticated ways to tell if you're driving while drunk – witness this alcohol-sniffing flashlight that a cop can aim inside your car. But will they someday be able to tell if you're high as well, with a breathalyzer-type device that senses the recent use of cannabis, cocaine and other drugs?

The technology certainly seems to be heading that way, to believe new research out of Sweden. On Thursday, scientists at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute announced that they'd successfully detected drugs by analyzing the groovy vapors wafting from people's gullets. Their technique picked out not just classic stuff like weed, cocaine and amphetamine, but also prescription drugs such as diazepam and the painkiller buprenorphine, raising the possibility that Future Cops could bust drivers for raiding their medicine cabinets to the point of impairment.