A new app to answer the eternal question: ’Am I stoned?«

Researchers at the University of Chicago are currently working on an application they hope will be able to answer a question many smokers have asked themselves at one time or another: am I stoned?

The results of their latest research were presented this week at the Emerging Biology in California by Elisa Pabon. The application Am I Stoned is still under development, but preliminary results suggest that the concept is viable.

To test their concept, the researchers recruited 24 volunteers who regularly used cannabis, but not on a daily basis, to try out the application. Am I Stoned in a randomized, controlled, double-blind trial.

In different sessions, volunteers first took a pill containing 0, 7.5 or 15 milligrams of THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis. Two and three hours later, they were subjected to a series of tests, on computer and iPhone, to assess whether they were «affected».

One of the iPhone tests required the user to use two fingers of their non-dominant hand to press two buttons as fast as they could. Another test required the user to shake the phone when a blue dot appeared.

The team's results were mixed. «Participants» average performance was impaired in three of the four computer tasks, but only one of the four iPhone tests, the finger-tapping test," explained Elisa Pabon. She also found that people were pretty good at guessing how much their performance was impaired.

«The tasks included in the app must be optimized to avoid floor or ceiling effects, practice effects and baseline variations,» said Elisa Pabon. «In addition, the tasks must be short and efficient, but also long enough to be effective and detect the effect of cannabis.»

This is probably why the computer tests, which lasted between 15 and 20 minutes, were more effective than the app tests, which lasted half as long. Given that a person's attention span can be ephemeral when they've consumed cannabis, the researchers hope be able to strike a balance between test length and complexity.

Elisa Pabon and her team now have to continue their research to create a product which will make it quick and easy to measure one's own faculties, and why not be used to create a detection device for drivers.