Weed is the most popular federally illicit drug in the United States. And employers know it. Indeed, cannabis is the most commonly detected drug in workplace urine drug tests.
Setting aside for a moment the totally legitimate criticisms of workplace drug screenings, and debates about the efficacy and accuracy of the tests and the generally humiliating, privacy-invading feel of the whole operation, let’s drill down into one simple question: how long does THC stay in your urine?
Overview: It’s… Complicated
Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer. So let’s simplify things by re-framing the question. Certainly, you’re not here for an academic treatise on cannabinoid metabolism.
More likely, you want to know how long THC stays in your urine because you’re up against a drug test. So really, the question isn’t how long does THC stay in your urine? The real question is, when will the amount of THC in your urine drop below the threshold for testing positive?
To answer that all-important, make-or-break question, it’s crucial to understand why and how THC ends up in your urine in the first place and the variables that control how quickly your body eliminates it.
How Does THC End Up In Your Urine?
Trick question! THC, or more specifically, the delta-9 THC that gets you high doesn’t end up in your urine at all! So why fear a urine drug test?
Because urine screenings aren’t looking for psychoactive, illicit delta-9 THC molecules. Instead, they detect what your body produces as a waste product after it metabolizes the THC you consume.
That waste product is called a metabolite. THC’s version is THCCOOH, which scientists call a ‘carboxy.’ Your excretory systems are in the business of removing waste metabolites like THCCOOH. To do so, THCCOOH joins up with a uronic acid called glucuronic acid, which passes out of the body in your urine.
Summing up, when you inhale THC in weed smoke, your body rapidly metabolizes it, getting you high just as fast. Your metabolism turns that psychoactive THC into the THCCOOH, which you then excrete through waste products (urine and feces). All told, 15 to 20 percent of the THC dose makes its way out of your body by way of acidic urinary metabolites.
How Long Does Weed Stay in My Urine: Examining All The Variables
Urine drug tests for weed, then, are essentially trying to detect evidence that your body is still working on eliminating the waste products from your last encounter with THC.
They don’t show when you last smoked. They can’t tell if you were high when you pissed. All they reveal is that your body is still working on eliminating THCCOOH, which means that your mody had to have metabolized an illicit amount of THC. At some point, at least.
With a test so dependent on all of the complex bodily processes involved in human metabolism, no wonder it’s impossible to offer a simple, straightforward answer your burning question, how long does THC stay in my urine? Here, then, are a list of the most influential variables.
THC Dose
As mentioned above, researchers are confident that 15 to 20 percent of a Delta-9 THC dose ends up eliminated via urine. Therefore, the more potent your weed is, the more metabolites will end up in your pee. This also explains how test administrators can correlate the tiny amounts they detect with a real dose of cannabis.
Use Habits
Logically enough, more habitual smokers are vulnerable to urine detection longer than those with more occasional habits. Actually, a lot more. So make sure you know the detection times.
One-time cannabis users will piss clean in as little as five days, or it could take as long as eight. Smoke just a few times a week? One and a half to two and half weeks and you should be fine. Smoke every day except a couple? It’ll take you a month to a month and a half, or more, to eliminate all the THCCOOH from your system.
And if you’re a daily user, expect a two-month time frame before your urine drug test will come back negative. One major study reported that a subject with daily use habits took 77 days before posting 10 consecutive negative tests. Here’s a handy table of these average detection windows. Again, these aren’t hard limits. They’re averages. And your body could be above or below them.
- 1-time use: clean in 5-8 days
- 2-4 times a week: 11-18 days
- 5-6 times a week: 33-48 days
- Daily use: 50-65 days, up to 77
How Long Does It Take for THC to Leave My Urine?
The answer to the question, how long does it take for THC to leave my urine, is a fairly straightforward one on the surface. It takes as long as it takes your body to metabolize THCCOOH and expel it as waste.
But remember, the important thing is for enough THC to leave your urine so that you pass your test. Having totally clean urine, in other words, isn’t completely necessary. What’s important is how much time you have to let your body do its thing.
But since everyone’s body is unique, the amount of time it takes for THC to leave your urine will depend not just on dose and use habit, as explained above. It will also depend on additional factors, like your diet and exercise, your body weight and body fat index. Even your age and hormone function play a role.
Metabolism refers to the many, many chemical processes going on inside your body to keep you alive and functioning. Metabolizing cannabis is part of all of those processes, so increasing your metabolic rate—how fast your body is working through all those processes—will cause THC to leave your urine more quickly. This is why a number of factors influence the length of time that THC can be found in urine.
Factors that Decrease How Long THC Stays in Your Urine
So let’s look at a couple of these factors. First, diet and exercise.
Yes, food can actually increase your metabolism, but some foods work better than others. Fatty foods, for example, only raise your base metabolic rate by up to five percent. But proteins can raise your metabolic rate from 20 to 30 percent! Eat more protein, and THC will leave your urine more quickly because your body is metabolizing at a higher rate. Research also shows how hot, spicy foods can have a dramatic impact on increasing metabolic rate, too.
Exercise and physical activity play a big role, too. The more you work your muscles, the more your muscles need energy to burn. That’s why exercising regularly can give you a higher metabolism. You’re essentially training your body to burn more energy at a faster rate.
You’re also building muscle, and muscle tissue demands way more energy than fatty tissues, increasing your metabolic rate even further. That’s why weight and body-fat index matters, too. The more muscle you have versus fat, the faster your metabolism will be. And the more mass your body has, the more energy it needs to burn.
These physiological factors impact the average times listed above. So for example, two people can consume the same dose of THC or consume cannabis with the same frequency but still have different timespans for how long it takes THC to leave their urine.
The person with more muscle, or who exercises more and is more active, or who eats more protein, or who is younger, will fall on the shorter end of the average timelines listed above. The other person, with more fat, who’s less active or older, will fall on the longer end of the average timelines based on dose and use frequency.
Cleanse Using a Detoxification Program
If you have at least seven days before your test, a detoxification program will speed up the body’s natural cleansing process and completely rid your body of the THC in your system in about a week. These programs also come with home testing kits to verify you are clean.
Cleanse the Same Day
If your test is coming up sooner, certain detox drinks are known to flush your system the same day you drink them keeping you clean for a period of four to six hours.
Inhaled Or Ingested?
How long does THC stay in your urine after you eat edibles compared with smoking or vaping weed? Considering how different an edibles high can feel next to a high from smoking weed, one might expect the THC levels in urine to vary.
In truth, they do. Edibles will make THC stay in your urine a bit longer, from several hours to an extra day. But that’s not a significant enough degree to make a real difference in the outcome of your test.
In other words, both methods of administering your THC dose are going to put enough THCCOOH in your urine to make you fail a urine drug test. But because of the way your body processes THC when you eat it—converting it to a psychoactive metabolite called 11-hydroxy-THC, and then into THCCOOH, which the test detects—edibles can leave you at risk longer, based on your use habits, compared to smoking or vaping cannabis.
Physiological Factors
When it comes to your own body, two factors play a key role in how long THC stays in your urine. The first is your metabolic rate. If you have a higher metabolism, you’ll excrete THCCOOH faster.
The second is your level of hydration. The more fluids you ask your body to process, and the more urine you thus produce, the quicker THC metabolites will leave your body.
Summing Up: How Long Does THC Stay In Your Urine?
Drug urine tests for weed have all kinds of shortcomings and inadequacies. But they are good at one thing: revealing whether or not the person being tested has consumed cannabis, in some form, at some point in the past. Unfortunately, for many employers with zero tolerance policies, that’s enough to fire you or move on to the next candidate. Knowing how long THC stays in your urine, therefore, is crucial knowledge for anyone who uses marijuana, regardless of how often or how much.
(Updated from a previous post.)
Excellent article!
Now if we could get drug testing done using a Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) test, we could ensure our rights are protected.
As we read, just because THC is detected in your test — it’s not conclusive that you are under the influence. It might have been weeks since you last ingested any THC, but you’ll still test positive with many drug tests!
A Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) test can be adjusted to not just detect whether you have THC in your system, but also the level (predetermined by the lab) of the THC. This could tell the lab whether you smoked at that concert 3 weeks ago or just before you got behind the wheel of your car.
PASSING A DRUG TEST IS EASY if you follow the directions below a few days before your drug test:
1. Don’t use cannabis!
2. Go keto (low carb) and start burring fat!
3. Drink a bunch of water and things like tea to flush your system and ramp up your metabolism.
4. Exercise some, either by walking jogging or hitting the sauna!
5. Lastly get a detox kit from someone reputable like https://www.verdantdetox.com/ ; I’ve use it a couple times and it hasnt failed me yet.
Don’t try to cheat your drug screen and use synthetic urine; the labs are too sophisticated and you’ll definitely get caught. Be smart guys and give up the habit for a few days. It wont be as bad as you think!
“mody” instead of “body” grammatical error
Hi, I’ve been smoking daily for the last two years and for the last 4 months have been smoking .5g 80%-95% thc vapes, how long do you think it will take for my urine to come back clean?
Since December I smoked about 20 to 40 grams using my Stiizy. I stopped on May 15 and today is June 25.
Im still dirty. Im only 5″4 but weight 220.
Ived drank plenty of fluids, maybe like 5 -10 water bottles worth because I drink 2-3 cups of black coffee in the morning then ill drink a protein shake mixed with veggies and fruit. Later ill have 2 cups of either cucumber water, ginger tea or jamaica. I also drink either crabberry or promegranted juice. Of course all organic and plus the plain water I drink throughout the day.
Im looking for a job and I did try a detox drink and it did not work for me.
The first time I went clean it took me 2.5 months. 🙁
I took 2 drags of a joint on July 3rd..Got a urine test today (July, 14th, 2020)…Will it show up on my test?…
I use the thick extracted oil, that is black, and I’m not a day to day smoker. How long would it take if I stopped this morning and I do a drug test 9 to 10 days from now? I’m not active bc I broke my ankle.
I smoke about 2 ta 3 hits off my pipe a day. I quit the 9th and have to do a drug test by June 7th. I take really small hits cause I have hardly any tolerance to the stuff. Its a urine test btw.
I vaped several hits on July 12th. This is the first time I’ve smoked in six months. Do you think if I took a pre employment urine test on July 23rd I would pass?
I know your timeframe in your article shows I should. Just need that extra confidence boost.
Thank you!!
What is a good detox 2 use for a drug test that is 49 days away I am a vegan and my weight is about 117 and my age is 62 I may smoke a bowl or two a day
How did it go?
How di it go
I smoke about 2 ta 3 hits off my pipe a day. I quit the 9th and have to do a drug test by August 7th. I take really small hits cause I have hardly any tolerance to the stuff. Its a urine test btw.
I’ve had similar experience, you should be fine! I did cardio often and drank plenty of water/tea.
Question! I had a surprise swab test at a new job, I smoked my bowl Wednesday night and a blunt with a friend Tuesday. Took the test around 130p Friday, I moved the swab around my mouth, I tried to get as little saliva on it as possible, I didn’t place it on my cheek or tongue tried to keep it in the middle of my mouth. I also pulled it out a couple of times. Do you think I should be fine??? I drink water and Gatorade I also had tea the morning off I DEF brush my teeth. THOUGHTS??
I cannot go a day without my asteroid gummies!
PASSING A DRUG TEST IS EASY if you follow the directions below a few days before your drug test:
1. Don’t use cannabis!
2. Go keto (low carb) and start burring fat!
3. Drink a bunch of water and things like tea to flush your system and ramp up your metabolism.
4. Exercise some, either by walking jogging or hitting the sauna!
5. Lastly get a detox kit from someone reputable like https://www.verdantdetox.com/ ; I’ve use it a couple times and it hasnt failed me yet.
Don’t try to cheat your drug screen and use synthetic urine; the labs are too sophisticated and you’ll definitely get caught. Be smart guys and give up the habit for a few days. It wont be as bad as you think!
Found out 2 days ago I was to have an Oral Test for pre-employment. Daily smoker and was concerned as I’ve never done an oral swab drug test before so I did a search on web and found this site and tips. I stopped smoking for 2 days and pretty much nothing else except brushing teeth and rinsing with mouthwash. Went for test this morning, after brushing and mouthwash, and passed with flying colors.
Helpful hint: be sure and hydrate well as you will be nervous and when nervous saliva production dropped lol So it took about 5-7 minutes to wet the swab enough — talk about “cotton mouth” lol
Overall, easy test to pass if you take some simple precautions
I’m a 30 y/0 5’8 280lb chubby boy. I do it all, dabs, carts, dry bud edibles.
Stopped everything for 3 days 2 nights and passed my mouth swab for Amazon.
I swished with mouth wash, brushed my teeth, tongue, cheeks, gums.
I didn’t push the swab around in my mouth, let it rest against my teeth and let moisture fall on it and around it.
I am a 17y/o who has been smoking near enough daily for around a year now. I am 7 days clear so far however on the 20th i have a urine drug test, i am unsure if i will fail or not. I am 5’’9 and around 55kg will i be fine…?
I had no idea I was going to be tested today. Just hit the bong at home, drove for like 15 min then walked in and was surprised with a saliva test. Mind you I also had just popped a perc😂 and it still came out clean. Luck of the draw I guess