How long weed stay in your system: Urine, Saliva, Hair and Blood
How long does weed stay in your system? This article will help you answer this and other similar questions.
You have your reason for taking weed. However, many people live with drug addiction, while others take club drugs recreationally. For whatever reason, nevertheless, the fear for every weed user is drug screening and testing. Generally, a drug test sets out to detect drug use and misuse in urine, sweat, saliva, and blood or hair samples. However, most drug tests use urine samples which begs the question: how long does weed stay in urine?
You may also need to read about how to pass a drug test for THC to know the right way to detox your body before a drug test. What if weed shows up in your test results? Then you may lose your job or an employment opportunity. It can also affect your eligibility to play sports or participate in any other event and even shift the outcome of a legal matter against your favor. You don’t want to be on the losing end.
CBD vs THC: Similarities and differences
What is THC? How does THC differ from CBD? CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) are two natural compounds in the Cannabis plant with different chemical properties and effects on the body. For example, THC makes you euphoric after taking marijuana, while CBD does not. Instead, CBD helps with depression, migraine, nausea, anxiety, and seizures.
Furthermore, neither THC nor CBD is fatal. However, this is not enough reason to encourage you to take weed carefreely because high THC intake can affect your mental health or result in adverse psychiatric effects. Also, THC and CBD can appear on drug tests even after several days or weeks of taking them because they are both stored in the body fat.
How THC is metabolized
THC metabolism is transforming and converting marijuana from one chemical form to another. The metabolism begins when marijuana is ingested and does not end until it is passed out of the body.
The liver is the primary place where drug metabolism happens in the body because of the many enzymes present. Therefore, a sufficient amount of UGT enzymes can help you metabolize THC faster and make the metabolites ready to be eliminated.
Perhaps you are asking: how long does it take weed to leave your system? Then, 80 – 90% of THC metabolites will likely be out of your body after the fifth day of taking weed. However, the remaining 10 – 20% may remain in body tissues and get released slowly with time. Therefore, you may need to use a THC detox to pass a drug test.
Can you test positive from edibles and oils?
First, edibles are food or drink products that contain THC or CBD and can take hours to digest. Depending on the dominant concentration between THC and CBD, they may also not achieve peak levels until after 1 to 3 hours of consumption. Perhaps you are asking: how long do edibles last? Then, the effects of edibles may last between 6 to 8 hours after peak levels, which makes you feel high for prolonged hours.
On the other hand, THC oil is an extract from cannabis plants. Similar to edibles, the main substances in THC oils are THC and CBD, depending on the type of cannabis plant. Therefore, cannabis oils with high CBD or controlled CBD and THC are used as medicinal oils. So the answer to the question is yes because THC oils with high THC content can make you test positive for a drug test – likewise, edibles.
Factors that influence how long weed remains detectable
How long does marijuana stay in your system? How long does THC stay in your system? It can be challenging to provide definite answers to these questions because of the factors affecting how long weed remains detectable. To learn more about this topic, you can visit https://www.easton-hospital.com/how-long-weed-stay-in-system for additional information on the factors influencing how long THC remains detectable in the body.
- Metabolism rate: A person with a high metabolism rate will naturally pass out weed and THC faster and have a shorter detention window than someone with a slow metabolism rate.
- Amount of THC consumed: The more you consume THC, the longer it will take your system to process and eliminate it. However, daily use of weed does not mean you will have a higher level of THC in your body than someone who takes weed less frequently because some forms of weed are more potent than others.
- Frequency of use: Research on urine drug tests reports that weed is likely to remain for 3 days in your body if you take it for the first time, while it is 10 to 15 days if you are a daily user and 30 days and beyond if you are a heavy or chronic user.
- Types of drug tests: The saliva tests have a detection window of up to 24 hours, blood tests with up to 12 hours, urine tests with 3 to 30 days, and hair tests with up to 90 days. Therefore, you will find it easier to pass blood and saliva drug tests than urine and hair tests.
- Body fat: High body fat levels aid the attachment of THC metabolites to body fats, thus, slowing the metabolism rate. Therefore, THC metabolites are more likely to remain longer in your body if your body fat composition is high.
- Genetics: Genetics affects the amount or concentration of UGT enzymes in the body. Therefore, if these enzymes are present in the appropriate concentration, the rate of metabolism and elimination will be faster.
Types of drug tests
There are four popular methods for illegal drug testing: saliva, urine, blood, and hair. These tests are discussed further below.
- Saliva test: The saliva test involves collecting and analyzing saliva samples to detect same-day weed consumption or residual in the mouth. Its detection window is between 24 to 72 hours.
- Blood test: The blood test involves collecting samples to detect recently used weed substances. It has a 2 to 12 hours detection window but can also detect weed metabolites in heavy or chronic weed users up to 30 days after the last use.
- Urine test: The urine test uses samples as expected and is excellent at detecting weed metabolites in frequent weed users. It has a detection window of up to 30 days, making it a reliable test. However, the test can be easily tampered with.
- Hair test: The hair test usually uses a hair strand, allowing a drug test observer to detect drug metabolites in the hair follicle from the first week a drug is taken to the time the hair grows. It has a detection window of up to 90 days and up to 12 months for body hair.
Find below the different ways of using weed
- Smoking: It involves rolling weed into a cigarette and burning it before inhalation.
- Vaping: It involves vaporizing the active ingredients in weed.
- Oral ingestion: Users swallow or digest weed concentrates in the form of oil or edibles.
- Dabbing: It involves placing THC resins into a pipe and creating vapour immediately after heating.
The table below contains information on different use frequencies of weed.
Types of drug use | Use frequency |
Single | Once |
Moderate | 4 times per week |
Frequent | Daily |
Chronic | Multiples times daily |
Is it legal to demand drug tests in the U.S.?
There are currently no restrictions under the law that prevents an employer from testing his employees for weed in the U.S. However, the Supreme Court ruled that drug testing may infringe on employees’ privacies.
Who may be considered a frequent user?
A frequent user is involved in daily or near-daily use of weed at an amount sufficient to cause intoxication. In addition, regular users are more likely to rehab or receive treatment for marijuana use.
Is it possible to force metabolism?
You can force metabolism with activities that slightly increase your metabolism rate. These activities include exercises, workouts, drinking water and caffeinated beverages, and getting good sleep. However, these activities can only provide you with short-term results.
Is it possible to receive false positive test for THC?
There have been cases of people receiving false positive tests either because they hung out with a friend during smoke sessions or ingested CBD oil. So, yes, it is possible. However, the chances are meagre.
Conclusion
This article has discussed how long weed is likely to stay in the body and how detention windows vary with each drug testing method. Surprisingly, you have also discovered that receiving a false positive THC result is possible if you ingest CBD oil. However, CBD and THC have been medically reviewed and, thus, regarded to have medical benefits.
Abstaining from using weed remains the best way to pass a drug test. However, if you cannot abstain even after passing your drug test, ensure you reduce your use frequency to prevent ending up in a treatment center. Perhaps you also know someone suffering from weed addiction. Then, it becomes necessary to take the person to an addiction rehab or for addiction treatment.