Drug Test Answers...

Every day someone asks the same questions about getting drug tested. "I smoked on this day and I weigh this much, when will I be good?" So here is the best answer I can come up with. So trust me. this is the best your going to get. Their is no set-in-stone way to tell. Just some guidelines and a few basic generalities.

When a person uses marijuana, smoked or consumed orally, there are over 400 cannabinoids that account for marijuana's psychoactive, or mind-altering, effects. The main chemical, the one that most drug tests look for, is Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. THC can stay in a person's body for as long as 3 to 90 days after smoking or being ingested orally. There are numerous factors for determining how long the drug stays in a persons body, which vary from person to person, such as the method used to consume the drug, your health, your body weight, metabolism, fluid intake, the degree of exposure to the drug. The list goes on and on. Therefore, there is no magic equation or special formula to find out exactly how long you have to wait. But, there are some ways to make an educated guess.

Marijuana is fat soluble. It stores in the fat cells of the body, the brain, the liver, the kidneys, in other words the major organs. THC enters the bloodstream rapidly after smoking (in minutes) or more slowly when ingested orally (20 minutes to 1.5 hours). Occasional smokers can test positive for up to 10 days. If you smoke marijuana on a regular basis it will stay in your system for as long as 45 days, and if you smoke marijuana at a constant pace, it can stay in the body for 90 days. Now, just because THC is present in your body doesn't mean that you will test positive. It all depends on what type of test they will be administering.

There are four main types of drug tests. Hair, Urine, Blood, or Saliva. Each test is different and some are much easier to pass than others. There is another way of drug testing known as a sweat test. Where you where a band-aid like patch and it absorbs your sweat as you work. But i honestly have never-ever heard of anyone using this method.

1. Hair Follicle Test - Hair strand testing detects the presence of metabolites that have moved from the blood to the base of the hair follicle. Studies indicate that hair grows on the average 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) per month, and most standard tests cover a period of 90 days. So the hair sample is cut as close to the scalp as possible and the most recent 1.5 inches are tested. It has been proven that this test is more sensitive to people with darker-colored hair. Also, Grey hair doesn't absorb as many metabolites as normal hair, so If you're older you have a better chance of passing. Studies indicate that marijuana metabolites don't bind sufficiently to hair compared to other drugs such as coke. Occasional cannabis consumption may go undetected on a hair test. Recent research indicates that exposure to high humidity will rapidly break down marijuana metabolites in hair of heavier smokers.
   
2. Urine Test - Approximately 90% of drug tests are urine tests. Despite popular belief, Urinalysis can not detect the presence of any illicit drugs - including marijuana - and can only identify the presence of non-psychoactive drug metabolites indicating that a substance has previously been consumed. In other words... They can't use urine tests to find illegal drugs in your system, but they can use it to find other drug metabolites in your system that can't get there without using the real thing. So yeah, they still catch you. The chemical detectable by Urinalysis (THC-CHOO) remains detectable in urine for several hours after a one-time use; but, it may be detectable for days and sometimes two-to-three weeks in regular users.
   
3. Blood Testing - Unlike urine tests, blood tests detect the presence of illicit drugs, not inactive drug metabolites. In general, THC only remains detectable in the blood for a few hours. Though low, residual levels may be detected in chronic smokers for up to 12 - 24+ hours. because of the narrow window, blood tests are typically only administered in the workplace after an accident. So most after work smokers have little to fear from a blood test.
   
4. Saliva Testing - Saliva testing works just like blood testing. THC is very difficult to identify in oral fluids, because only a very small amount of the drug is excreted into the saliva. As a result, most current saliva testing technology will only detect the presence of THC for less than a day. Typically just a few hours, sometimes not at all.

But as I stated before, None of these figures and numbers are set in stone. Every person is different and their body reacts in different ways to drugs and drug tests. The best way to figure this out for your own body is to set up a control for your own use. Smoke your average bowl or joint or whatever at one sitting (if you smoke more than 2, go right ahead but make sure you smoke it all less than 1 hour) , and wait 3 days (no smoking any at all) then take a drug test bought from a drug store, if it turned out positive, you need to wait 3 more days and repeat the process.




Information was gathered from Marijuanapassion.com and NORMAL.org