Randy Robinson, writing for MERRY JANE:
A group of neuroscientists, AI specialists, and psychologists at IBM developed a new method for detecting if someone is intoxicated on MDMA — simply by analyzing an individual’s speech patterns.
In a study published last week in Neuropsychopharmacology, researchers could pinpoint, with nearly 90 percent accuracy, whether someone was intoxicated on MDMA, the active ingredient of “molly” or “ecstasy,” based on certain types of words and emotions expressed in short segments of speech. This detection method could discern MDMA use from being dosed on oxytocin, the so-called “love hormone” that produces effects similar to, but still significantly different from, MDMA. […]Subjects on MDMA showed markedly different speech patterns compared to when they were only on oxytocin or placebo, and the unique speech patterns were more pronounced at higher doses of MDMA. Basically, people on molly used more words relating to intimacy, rapport, and emotion. Furthermore, their speech showed more instances of jitteriness, as well as different vowel pronunciations and richer use of adjectives and nouns.
Leveraging speech pattern technology to detect drug use is an impressive use case, but color me doubtful that it will accurately detect drug use (or the absence of it) 100% of the time. Unfortunately it does seem like this will eventually be picked up by doctors, police, rehab centers, parents, schools, and more:
In other words, someday in the foreseeable future, doctors will be able to tell if you’re on MDMA — and possibly other drugs such as weed, alcohol, meth, cocaine, or heroin — simply by recording you talk and running it through a handheld device.
And if doctors can do it, that means cops may be able to do it, too. Australian authorities are currently testing infrared cameras to catch people on MDMA at festivals based on their body-heat signatures alone — no breathalyzers, blood draws, or urine or saliva samples necessary.
None of these techniques are infallible, but the people who use and sell them don’t like to mention that.