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Marijuana commonly known as cannabis or weed is the most abused drug. People take it for pleasure, others from peer pressure while others use it as a medicinal herb.
In the year 2020, marijuana was legalized in some U.S states through the November ballot. Legality use in terms of percentage votes approved in Arizona (60% yes), New Jersey (67% yes), Montana (57% yes) and South Dakota (54% yes).
Despite having passed this law in these states, there are places which will not allow you smoke weed like in a work place. Thereby the reason for having drug test regardless of marijuana being legal.
It is always key to heed to the rules and regulations that will determine your stay at that particular place. Depending on how long marijuana will stay in your system, will be determined by factors discussed in this article
What happens when you smoke weed?
To start with, learn what weed is. It is a drug that is derived from cannabis sativa. A plant with green leaves and the color may change to faded green according to the age of the plant. It is an illicit drug in most states in USA, but rendered legal in some states.
Cannabis can be smoked in cigars whereby the tobacco in cigars is replaced with weed. Besides, it can be smoked in joints, pipes and bongs. Since it is a herbal plant, some people add it in their tea or food.
When you smoke marijuana, THC (Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) in marijuana is passed through the body, to the lungs and spread to other part of the body like hair, brain and bladder by the blood stream.
Weed has its cons and pros depending on how you use it. It may take around 15 to 30 minutes for you to feel the effect of smoking weed. Others take longer and may feel the effect 1 to 2 hours, especially with heavy users.
The mere effects come with feeling the sense of well-being, relaxation, giggling and feeling `high’. As a result, being restless, not able to focus properly, while others having an increased appetite. The effects may vary for different joint takers.
While some of these repercussions take short time to disappear, others take longer from weeks to months for chronic users. Regular smokers may have the effects disappear within 1 to 3 hours to a few days.
How is THC in marijuana processed in the body
THC is taken into the body organs and tissues like hair, brain, kidney, bladder, heart and in body fat. More to that, it is absorbed by the liver where it is metabolized to form (11-hydroxy-THC and the carboxy-THC).
Weed toxins are then flushed out from the system through the urine. THC stored in the body tissues is then released into the bloodstream and later metabolized by the liver resulting to it being excreted through urine.
THC, marijuana compound is fat soluble making it hard to get it out of the body faster than any other drugs. It may take longer trying to flush out weed for a heavy mass person than their counterpart, and the same case with heavy users who are prone to testing positive even after days of quitting smoking weed.
Detection window for weed for various drug tests
The presence of weed stains can show up at various detection windows according to the type of drug test. There are several drug tests carried out which includes hair follicle, blood, urine, sweat and saliva test.
Urine drug test
Urine test or the urinalysis is the most used way to detect any drug toxins not only for marijuana but for various drugs. It requires you to submit a sample of your urine to the testing facility and wait for a few hours to have your results.
Metabolites for marijuana can show up during the test for a light user (who smokes 2 times or less a week) 1 to 3 days since he last smoked. Moderate smoker (who smokes several times in a week) can test positive 7 to 21 days he last smoked. Lastly, a heavy smoker (smokes daily or in large amount) can test positive for marijuana a week to one month since they quitted smoking.
Typically, a urine test detects toxins in your urine up to 30 days. If you find it difficult to categorize yourself as a light, moderate or heavy user, check when you stopped smoking and weigh the probability of passing or failing the test.
Hair drug test
Hair absorbs drug toxins that flow through the blood all the way to hair strands through the veins on the scalp.
A hair test has the longest detection period of 90 days. It comes to our attention that, the rate of testing positive for marijuana with a hair test is high to other drug tests.
In case you decide to shave your hair, medics can still pick hairs from other body organs. Waxing your body may then lead to suspicion that you are trying to cheat the test.
Saliva test
Also referred to as mouth swab drug test, can detect weed metabolites in saliva 1 day of usage. This particular test does not necessarily have to be done in a lab, it is also done by the roadside to the motorists and drivers.
Carrying out a mouth swab saliva test is easy and fast with instant results. As long as you have not smoked in the last 24 hours, then passing the drug test is easy.
You can always have an Oral Clear Gum with you incase you bump into a roadside drug test. The gum flushes the toxins within 30 seconds and you can test negative even having smoked a few hours ago.
Blood test
Blood drug test is rarely used with drug tests. Reason for the test having a shallow detection window of 3 to 4 hours from the last joint. Beyond that, a blood test will not detect THC levels.
For heavy users it is not a surprise that the detection period may increase up to 1 and a half days. Neither is it the safest drug testing method.
Factors affecting how long weed stays in the system
Apart from the type of drug test, there are other factors that will determine how long marijuana stays in your system and the possibilities of testing positive despite being beyond the detection period.
Frequency of usage
Depending on how often you take in marijuana, it will determine what your results will be. Meaning, a person who have been smoking severally, has high amounts of THC in their system to a person who smoke like once a week.
That’s why you find someone testing positive for a urine test past 30 days of abstaining since the amount of THC in their system was not fully flushed out within this period.
The body fat
People with more fat in their body take longer to excrete marijuana from their body to people with lesser fat. THC is easily absorbed into the fat cells making it hard for it to get metabolized.
Weight may not necessarily have to do with your fat rate. For instance, a body builder and an obese person may have the same weight but different fat percentage.
The normal human fat percentage should be 21-31% (women) and 14-24% (men). Take your hip measurements add to waist measurements then subtract neck measurements to know whether you are within the right range.
Body exercise
The more you exercise, the more you cut fat. Besides, exercising removes drug toxins from the body through the sweat.
Even though that being the case, an exercise is not encouraged close to a drug test. Exercising increases the concentration of THC released by the fat cells and you may test positive for marijuana.
Body metabolism
The rate at which body metabolizes any drug toxins, the same case test results vary. The higher the body metabolism is, the faster the THC is eliminated from the system.
Metabolism depends with age; older people have a slower metabolism to younger people.
Hydration levels
Drinking a lot of water helps in flushing more toxins. While the need is to have a clean system, then water should be a necessity.
Dehydration increases the concentration rate of THC. The more water you drink the faster the metabolites are flushed out from your body.
How to get marijuana out of the system faster
Getting marijuana out of the system is something that will require patience and resilience. Eating foods rich in fiber, exercising and taking in more fluids may speed up the process but may not happen radically.
You can opt to use detox kits to permanently remove the toxins from your body. This may be faster but not a one-day process.
For the purpose of a drug test, you can use a masking agent to hide any drug toxins that are likely to show during the test. This can be done in a day or several days depending on how much time you have left to the test.
Passing a drug test for weed and other drugs
A drug test may come unexpectedly and you realize that chances of testing positive are high. Depending with the test awaiting, you can plan and see the possibilities of a pass.
1. Using detox drinks
Some of detox drinks requires you to abstain from drugs for at least a day or 2 before taking the detox plan. Mega clean directs on quitting smoking at least for 24 hours, take the pills and finally the drink on the test day.
2. Detox Pills
Toxin Rid 5 Day and Toxin Rid 10-Day (Full review here) detox kits are the leading brands when it comes to detox pills for a drug test.
A 1-day detox can work for a light user but may not be effective with heavy users. To be on the safest side always go for detox kit of 5 to 10 days. Both the 5 and 10 days detox kits are almost equal in terms of their strength.
Taking detox drinks and pills comes along with consuming a lot of water to ace in passing the test by flushing out more drug toxins from the system. They will work for urine test only.
3. Using synthetic urine
While submitting urine for a test, it must be in the required temperature of 90-100F. Clear Choice Sub Solution Urine (Full review) is among the best fake pee today. It is in powdered form and all you need is add some water to it to form a solution.
You don’t have to worry on how to maintain the temperature of sub solution since it comes with a powdered heat activator. This is what you will use by adding bits of it to the formed sub solution. You do not need hand warmers, neither using a microwave to warm it.
4. Hair shampoo for a hair test
Not a normal hair shampoo but the Old Style Aloe Toxin Shampoo (Full review) meant for removing marijuana metabolites.
It is the only guaranteed brand that helps people pass a hair test. To accomplish the mission, follow the macujo method or the jerry g method to wash away the toxins.
On the day of the test, sum up the process with the Zydot Ultra Clean Shampoo and you are good to go. The ultra-clean shampoo is a must have for better results. Get ultra clean shampoo from TEST CLEAR, the same website you will find old style aloe toxin shampoo.
Pass a mouth swab drug test here
Final verdict
Marijuana can be harmful or useful depending on how much you take it. The fact that removing weed from the system is hard, it is still possible, quit from smoking and you will be clean with time.
Whenever a drug test comes by, use the mentioned methods to beat the test and continue with your daily routines as usual.