Before Taking That Drug Test: How Long Does Marijuana Stay in the Body?

"How long does marijuana stay in the body?" This is a question that bites at anyone who tries to mix marijuana and job applications. Unfortunately, most corporate sectors are of the mindset that by detecting metabolites in a candidate's urine or hair, they have a good handle on how they'll perform on the job. I can't even imagine how many productivity hours have been lost due to people coming into work under the influence of a sluggish hangover from drinking the night before. However, that's the topic of another article. This article is concerned with how long marijuana stays in the body.

"How long does marijuana stay in the body?" is a bit of an erroneous question to ask. THC (the chemical responsible for getting you high) does not remain intact in the bloodstream for very long. If it did, then you could toke up once and be set for life. You'd probably also set yourself up for liver failure. No, THC and other cannabinoids break down in the human body into byproducts known as metabolites. Metabolites are the things tested for in drug tests because each drug has a particular metabolite imprint. Thus, metabolites are a kind of fingerprint for drugs in the human body. Although no drug test is fail-safe and false positives can come about due to chemical analogues with other metabolites, chances are that if marijuana metabolites are in your body, you've got a bit of a problem.

Therefore, the sixty-four thousand dollar question should be "how long do THC metabolites stay in the body?" Now that we have the right question, we can approach the right answer. Unfortunately it's not that simple. From adolescence we've been bombarded with the government-approved benchmark of thirty days for "marijuana staying in the body" after it's been smoked. There is some chance that in some people, metabolites will be detectable in a drug test thirty days after smoking. But for others, that figure will be inaccurate. Is there any way to determine for sure how long THC metabolites stay in a particular person's body? The simple fact is that there is no way other than to perform regular drug tests. Since most smokers don't really want to be that anal and go out buying their own drug testing kits, there are some rough factors that can help you determine how long metabolites will be detectable in a certain body.

The first factor is metabolism. If you have a high basal metabolic rate (ie: if you're built like a cross country runner) then these metabolites will be removed from your body faster. The tricky thing about THC is that unlike most recreational drugs, it's fat-soluble. This means that metabolites will become trapped in fat cells and take a lot longer to be excreted from the body than water-soluble drugs. But, if you're slight of build, this means you don't have a lot of fat to begin with. People who have between 8% and 12% body fat will be the ones who say goodbye to those metabolites first. When you have fewer fat cells, you reduce the chance of free-floating metabolites in the blood fusing with fat cells. If you are both skinny and have a high metabolism (ie: you can eat a boatload of food and not gain an ounce) you're also lucky. The faster you burn energy, the faster you excrete wastes from these metabolic processes. So realistically if you have a low body fat content and have a fast metabolism, you could knock a week or two off that thirty day figure.

The second factor is exercise and water intake. Exercise causes cells to go into overdrive. Energy reserves are tapped into in order to fuel metabolic and energy requirements during intense exercise. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot "sweat out" the metabolites, but you can figuratively do so. The more cells are stimulated to provide a lot of energy, the more they'll need to excrete waste products. These waste products include THC metabolites. Water is also a crucial factor. As we've said before, THC and its metabolites are not water soluble. However, water is necessary for the proper functioning of all body cells. If you drink sufficient quantities of water, your cells will be able to work more efficiently and carry away waste much more quickly. So, if you engage in heavy exercise regularly and drink plenty of water, you will once again knock some days off that thirty day benchmark.

The third factor is use. Someone who only smokes once a month will be much less likely to fail a drug test than someone who smokes three times a day. The issue here is simple summation. If you smoke once a month, then metabolites from only one bowl/joint will be distributed throughout your body. Therefore, the chances of enough metabolites being present in the urine you give on the day of your test is comparatively low. On the other hand, if you smoke several times a day, you're potentially filling fat cells with a snowball effect. Since THC metabolites take longer to excrete than other metabolites, smoking regularly will keep adding more and more and outstripping the excretion rate. Therefore, if you only smoke once a month, your chances for passing a test are relatively higher.

A final note before my concluding remarks. Urinalysis tests are different from hair or blood tests. Hardly anyone will test your blood for THC metabolites, unless you're in a rehab program or perhaps applying for a government position. THC metabolites don't stay in blood for more than a couple of days. Urine is the most popular form of drug testing. All of the aforementioned factors I discussed are with regard to URINE testing. A hair test cannot be beaten. They are rare, usually only used by employers in certain education and government fields. But they are pernicious due to their mechanism. When you smoke, metabolites are circulated through your bloodstream and some end up in the nourishing blood vessels of hair follicles. These metabolites are then trapped in the keratin in the hair and cannot be removed by any lifestyle changes or commercial preparations (despite what internet ads claim!).

So, what can we conclude from this? If you're skinny, can eat a cow and not get fat, run/bike/swim regularly, drink a lot of water, and only smoke marijuana once a month, then you can expect to see those metabolites gone from your system in as little as three days. If you're overweight, gain weight easily, don't exercise, drink more coffee than water, and smoke three times a day, then you can expect metabolites to be detectable up to and OVER thirty days. The painful fact is that the only way to be sure about being able to pass a drug test is to abstain from smoking at least a month before the test. Many of us don't have the luxury of knowing about a test this far in advance. The best you can do on short notice is to put your body through some hearty exercise, drink a lot of water, and STOP smoking until after the test. If you fail, you fail. Perhaps it'll be a learning experience or perhaps not.