Cannabis is something to be enjoyed, but it’s essential to know just how long weed stays in your system. It’s important because you would never want to put yourself into a situation where it compromises your safety or others’ safety. Being clued up on this information will ensure you can use weed for the benefits it can provide without impacting your life in any way. In this guide, we’ll be covering everything you need to know about cannabis and how long you can expect it to remain in your system from your blood to your urine, your saliva, and more.
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How Long Does It Take to Feel The High Effect?
The length of time it takes can vary depending on certain factors, and the same can be said for when it comes to remaining in your system. The time it takes you to feel the high effect can be anywhere between the first 30 minutes to an hour after inhaling. The THC levels peak at this point, and that’s what causes you to feel high. The high itself can last up to several hours, depending on the amount you take and its strength. The intensity is likely to decrease after the first hour or so, which is good to know.
The sensation of how it feels can also differ from person to person.
- You might feel a sense of euphoria and perhaps feeling like you’re somewhat out of your body.
- Some get the giggles, while others can be very relaxed.
- The munchies are often also associated with smoking weed.
However, even those some of these feelings are pleasant ones; it’s worth knowing the weed can also have adverse effects.
- It can make you feel anxious.
- You can feel paranoid
- Some are even known to cause vomiting and nausea.
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How Long Does Weed Last?
When you smoke weed, cannabis can remain in your system in different ways. Let’s look at how long cannabis can last in various areas of your body.
Hair
Cannabis consumption can be detectable by a hair test if the use is daily or near-daily. That can be detectable up to three months later. However, it’s important to note that it’s not always reliable to detect the use or amount of cannabis used when it comes to tests on the hair. It’s also tricky to determine if they used weed themselves.
Urine
With urine tests, the results will only be apparent if the user has recently smoked marijuana. It won’t be able to do so if the person is intoxicated by cannabis within that moment. The reason for that is that the body has to break down the THC to show up on the test. Many workplaces will encourage the urine test when it comes to drug tests because it can detect recent use.
Blood
As weed tends to only stay in your bloodstream for a short amount of time, it’s not common for blood tests to detect it. However, there are exceptions to that rule, and roadside accidents are one time that this test gets performed. Blood can only show current intoxication, so even if it was reasonably recent, its chances of showing up as positive are low.
Blood tests to detect cannabis aren’t a popular option because it stays in the bloodstream for such a short time. Sobriety tests and car accidents are generally the only time that these tests see use. These tests can show current intoxication, but they do not indicate the level of impairment.
Saliva
Saliva is very much the same when it comes to detecting weed in the system. Blood or saliva tests will only show current intoxication, so it’s not something that would commonly be looked at when testing those who may have smoked marijuana.
False Positive Test
Most testing for marijuana rarely leads to false positives because many tests would be screened with a GCMS or otherwise known as a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. This screening allows for more accurate results, and due to advancements in this field, a lot of problems that would cause false marijuana positives no longer exist. These were products like painkillers that were causing these tests to come out as false positives. Again, it rarely happens, but you could be an anomaly if you haven’t smoked weed.
What Factors Affect the Detection Time?
Related: A Brief History of Medical Marijuana
There can often be factors involved that affect the detection time when it comes to testing. It can change the length of time the weed stays in your body, and so it’s worth knowing these factors.
Sex
Gender can impact the detection time as women tend to metabolize THC at a slower rate than men. The reason for this is because women can often have higher levels of body fat than males do. That’s not to say it doesn’t affect everyone’s detection time, but on average, women might be harder to detect for THC than men.
Metabolism
Depending on your metabolism and how fast it is, it can determine how easily cannabis can show on a test. Metabolism rates can depend on your age, the amount of physical activity you have, and other health conditions. If your metabolism is fast, you will likely encourage marijuana to exit your body a lot quicker.
Frequency Of Use
The frequency in which you use marijuana can also impact the detection window. There’s evidence that the length of time can be affected by how often someone uses it, how much of it they end up using and how long they’ve used it. If you’re regularly smoking it, you are more likely to have a positive drug test, even if there’s been a considerable amount of time between the inhalation and the test itself. It can show positive results after 45 days, and for others who use it more heavily, it could be 90 days. That’s certainly a long time to factor in, especially if you start a new job, and a drug test is a common practice.
Hydration
If you’re dehydrated, it will usually result in more concentrated THC levels in the body. If you’re flooding your body with water, you are effectively flushing out the system, but it doesn’t guarantee that the test will come back conclusive. It might be that you’ll have to retake the test.
BMI
Your BMI can be influential to the detection window, as mentioned earlier, regarding metabolism. If you have a higher amount of body fat, the THC metabolites will often store themselves in your body’s fat cells. It means that your body will metabolize a lot slower to get rid of the weed in your body. If that’s the case and you take a test, it might mean a positive result even if there’s been a lot of time between you taking it till now.
How To Get Weed Out of Your System?
Getting weed out of your system is something that you might want to do if there’s a risk of workplace drug tests or a negative effect on cannabis that you’ve experienced. Flushing your system is one way; that means you need to drink a lot of water and fluids to flush it out of your body through the urine. Exercising can also help.
Using drug screening agents can also be capable of cleaning the body. Companies that sell substances and herbal teas are capable of removing all marijuana traces from your system. Although they promise this, there’s no concrete evidence that it works. You might want to be wary of buying into some of these products.
There’s also the option of tampering with a test, but that’s not 100% guaranteed to work. It could even get you in trouble. Tampering with the screening would usually involve adding something to a urine test to contaminate it. Things like bleach, salt, or even detergent could affect the test results but aren’t fully proven to work. Most laboratories will be able to detect contamination too, so it’s not something that would be worth risking. The best thing you can do is wash out your system as best you can with water and fluids.
Although weed is still considered in some parts to be illegal or frowned upon, it’s something that is changing. With more education on the benefits of marijuana, it can hopefully become a more widely used drug for both recreational and medical usage. It’s good to understand how weed can affect your system and ensure it never gets you on the wrong side of the law. Do you have more questions, or are you searching for your new favorite strain? See what Sparc has to offer!
Related: Weed for Beginners: Everything You Need to Know
