The length of time during which marijuana or cannabis stays in your system is dependent on a few factors. These factors include frequency of use, dosage, and bodily function. Generally, you can expect that more frequent use and higher dosage will result in extended detection time. For those who use marijuana or cannabis every day, it may be detectable for several months after the last usage. An excellent resource for obtaining reliable insights about marijuana use, and CBD in particular, is American Marijuana (americanmarijuana.org).
Urine Testing
As mentioned above, the dosage and frequency play a significant role in whether or not trace amounts of marijuana will be detectable in your system. The most common form of testing for marijuana in a person’s system is through their urine. Heavy or chronic users may find that marijuana stays in their system for over a month. At the same time, this number may drop down to just three days for occasional users. Marijuana can take longer than other drugs to exit your system because cannabis metabolites bind to the fat molecules in your body. Fat-soluble metabolites tend to stay in your body’s system the longest.
Saliva Testing
Saliva testing methods yield similar results to urine testing. In states where marijuana has been legalized for recreational use, saliva may be used for immediate roadside testing. For occasional users, their oral fluid will contain trace amounts of marijuana for just 1 to 3 days. For chronic or heavy users, this number will vary between 1 and 29 days.
Blood Testing
Marijuana is detectable in a person’s bloodstream within mere seconds of its inhalation. It is then distributed to tissues and partially reabsorbed in the blood to be broken down. Since the metabolites are fat-soluble, they remain in the bloodstream for days. The range that marijuana metabolites may stay in a person’s bloodstream is between 1 and 25 days. In accordance with most other means of testing, duration of presence is dependent on usage. Daily use and high dosage will result in detection closer to the 25-day mark, while occasional users may not have any residual marijuana left in their system after just a few days.
Hair Testing
Marijuana detection time is the longest in hair tests. Tests that use hair follicles can allow the tester to discover marijuana usage from as far back as 90 days. This increased detection time is because, after ingestion of cannabis products, like vapes or edibles, marijuana reaches the hair follicles via tiny blood vessels. Trace amounts remain in the hair for some time, although it is partially dependent on hair growth. Approximately, hair grows about .5 inches each month. To conduct a hair test, all that is needed is a 1.5-inch hair segment taken from close to the scalp.
Does CBD show up on a drug test?
If you expect a marijuana drug test and are concerned that CBD usage may affect your results, rest assured that they will not. Unless the CBD products that you are using expressly contain THC or Delta-9, CBD or cannabidiol usage will not affect your results. In most places across the United States, CBD and hemp products are perfectly legal. Therefore, drug tests that are searching for marijuana usage are not screening for CBD.
A common misconception surrounding drug tests is that they search for the presence of THC. THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, and it is the compound found in cannabis that produces the “high” with which marijuana usage is associated. However, most drug testing methods search for those fat-soluble metabolites since they remain in your system much longer than THC. THC is absorbed into the bloodstream. Some THC is also temporarily held in fatty tissues and organs. Eventually, THC is broken down in the liver. It will be excreted through stool and urine after the body has processed it along with its metabolites.
