Analyzer
can take the gizmo to market. Verbeck estimates the commercial version of the device will cost between $20,000 and $40,000. Over time, he expects the price to fall to about $10,000 as production becomes more efficient.
Verbeck bears a resemblance to Bryan Cranston’s Walter White character from the TV series “Breaking Bad,” in which a high school chemistry teacher — chasing fast money — begins making meth with a former student.
Verbeck embraces the look and once dressed up as White for a lecture. But Verbeck says his and Kiselak’s aims are more noble than just making money. He said he primarily wanted to help solve the opioid crisis that has hit communities across the country.
He said if someone on opioids or other drugs were unresponsive and needed medical treatment, capturing the person’s breath with the device would allow doctors to make a quick diagnosis and give appropriate treatment.
Public safety uses could be in the offing as well. In Texas, it’s illegal to drive under the influence of drugs. While officers can perform a field sobriety test, they have no means to confirm the person is impaired because of drugs other than alcohol. They would have to order a blood or urine sample to verify it.
And as more states legalize marijuana, a portable test can help officers identify when people are driving with more THC in their system than laws allow, Verbeck said.
Erwin Ballarta, executive director of the Texas Police Association, said Verbeck’s device would be a useful tool for law enforcement because it’s less invasive than a blood or urine test and can produce results in the field.
And, Ballarta said, “if it saves one life, it’s worth” the hefty price tag.
Verbeck said corporations could use his device to test employees who handle heavy machinery, fly planes or drive buses and other vehicles.
Verbeck, who recently developed and put a “drug-sniffing” car on the market, has worked on his breath testing device for the past six months. The prototype is almost complete. But he still has to figure out the part of the device into which people will blow.
Verbeck said that the mass spectrometer is stable but that “how you collect breath is where there could be a field of error.”
In addition to being used as a tool against the current opioid crisis, the device might help in assessing future epidemics, Verbeck said.
“Accountability starts with testing,” Verbeck said.