But these feelings are usually temporary—most people find the first week the hardest. Even if you don’t use marijuana at work, residual effects like decreased focus or changes in sleep patterns might impact your job performance. Some people find it harder to pursue advancement opportunities or stay engaged in long-term career planning, especially if marijuana is affecting their motivation.
How Long Does THC Stay in Urine?
It’s also important to remember that “occasional” and “chronic” cannabis users each represent opposite sides of the usage spectrum, and most consumers would likely fall somewhere in the middle. It is impossible for anyone to accurately state the length of time it would take for somebody to test clean for marijuana in a drug test. This is because there are many different variables that impact on the rate that marijuana is both metabolized and excreted (see below). Typically, THC is detectable for the least amount of time in saliva.
Understanding the Long-Term Effects of Marijuana Use
Several factors can affect how long marijuana remains in your system, including the frequency of use, body fat percentage, metabolism, and the potency of the marijuana consumed. Additionally, the type of drug why does weed stay in your system so long test being used, such as urine or hair follicle tests, can impact how long THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) is detectable in your system. For urine tests, THC metabolites are the target as they are eliminated through urine.
- Mindfulness-based approaches can also help you increase your self-awareness and make conscious choices about your relationship with marijuana.
- Seeking support from healthcare professionals, support groups, or counseling services can be helpful during this process.
- If you are one of the tens of millions of people who use cannabis, beware of drug screenings!
- Blood testing for THC from cannabis has the smallest window of time for accuracy especially if you smoke it.
- In someone who smokes or consumes weed regularly, THC can gather in fatty tissues faster than your body can clear it.
- This thorough evaluation helps us craft a plan that fits your specific situation.
Long-term Effects of Marijuana
Although abstinence is an obvious initial answer, it may even be dangerous to hang out with friends who are smoking weed. Indeed, in a 2015 study, Vandrey exposed a small group of participants to secondhand smoke in both ventilated and non-ventilated rooms. He showed that some participants who sat in the non-ventilated room tested positive for THC-COOH, with concentrations in urine exceeding 57 ng/mL. Flegel also notes that he often sees cases where individuals fluctuate between positive and negative tests for marijuana over a period of time. THC is detectable for around 90 days in your hair, but in a surprising number of cases, it’s not detectable at all. This is because hair takes time to grow and so fresh use may not be detected in time.
- Always prioritize your health and well-being when considering any detox methods.
- Researchers lacked detailed information about when heavy cannabis use occurred in participants’ lives and couldn’t account for differences in marijuana potency or consumption methods.
- Several factors affect how long cannabis metabolites stay in your system.
- – has been a cause of discussion for every stoner and bonghead who’s found themselves in the lulls of a high.
- Researchers found cannabis use reduced brain activity in certain areas of the brain responsible for decision-making, memory, paying attention and emotional processing.
An individual with a high metabolism will tend to eliminate marijuana and its active metabolite, THC, far more quickly than an individual with a slower metabolism. If you have a high metabolism, your detection window is likely to be far shorter. Hair tests look for the past three months of marijuana use, though detection can depend on hair length.
When you smoke or vape marijuana, THC enters your lungs and moves quickly into your bloodstream. You’ll usually feel the effects within minutes, making smoking one of the fastest ways to get high. When you eat marijuana in the form of edibles, it takes longer for THC to be absorbed because it has to go through your digestive system first.
Drug information
Other compounds can also be detected, but drug tests look specifically at THC, the compound responsible for the euphoric effects of marijuana. In typical cases, it might vanish within about 36 hours for occasional users. But heavy, chronic use might keep it around for a bit longer—some claim up to seven days. Still, blood testing is rarely the main choice for routine checks because THC levels drop so quickly. You’re more likely to face a Substance abuse blood test in scenarios like a car crash, where authorities suspect impairment right now. While saliva and blood testing pick up very recent use, hair testing is mainly valuable for detecting drug use from quite some time ago.
Researchers don’t know how long the effects of chronic cannabis use last. THC can enter the saliva through exposure to secondhand cannabis smoke. However, its metabolites are only present in saliva when you have personally smoked or ingested cannabis. Once the THC metabolites are stored in your hair, they will stay there until you cut your hair. Access to cannabis and cannabis-related products has increased dramatically in recent years. This may be particularly concerning among younger adults because they can be more susceptible to the development effects of substance use than older people, Danovitch said.