The Drug Screening Question on Everybody's Mind

A question that bites at anyone who tries to mix marijuana and job applications is "How long does marijuana stay in the body?". Unfortunately, most corporate sectors are of the mindset that by detecting marijuana's metabolites in a candidate's urine or hair, they have a good handle on how they'll perform on the job. We 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. 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. Marijuana's 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, marijuana's THC and other cannabinoids break down in the human body into byproducts known as metabolites. Metabolites are the things tested for in urine or hair drug tests because each drug has a particular metabolite imprint. Drug metabolites are a kind of fingerprint for drugs in the 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.