The Drug Screening Question on Everybody's Mind

Therefore, the $64,000 question should be "how long do marijuana's 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 30 days for "marijuana staying in the body" after it's been smoked. There is some chance that in some people, marijuana's metabolites will be detectable in a drug test 30 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 marijuana's metabolites will be detectable in a body.

The first factor is metabolism.

If you have a high basal metabolic rate then marijuana metabolites will be removed from your body faster. The tricky thing about marijuana's 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 8-12 per cent body fat will be the ones who say goodbye to marijuana 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 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 30 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 marijuana's THC metabolites. Water is also a crucial factor. As we've said before, marijuana's THC and its metabolites are not water soluble. However, water is necessary for the proper functioning of all human 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 30 day benchmark.