Drug Test Detection Times. How Long Can a Drug Stay in Your Body?

August 6, 2019
Posted in Addiction
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Currently, only a few people can answer this question. This is because of the large amount of contradicting information out there. We need accurate information for instances such as employment drug tests, adherence to doctor’s instruction, or to gather knowledge. This is a guide to us understand Drug screening, the various types of drug tests and detection period for various drugs in each of the tests.

Drug Screening

Drug screening is a process used to investigate the existence of drugs in one’s body. It is a competent method as it can trace the presence of a drug even when its visible side effects abate. Various factors will influence the ability to detect a drug in your system. They are:

Your hydration state and fluid balance
The elimination half-life of the drug. The elimination half-life is the period a drug’s concentration takes to decrease to 50% or below.
The drug’s administration method.
The cut-off concentration used by labs to trace the drug.
The number of times you have consumed the pill before the test.

The above variables influence your drug test’s reliability. However, various biological samples have varying detection times for various drugs.

Urine Drug Test

The urine drug test accounts for 90% of drug screenings carried out in recent years. It is the most favored method of drug screening because it is a painless, easy, quick and cost-effective process that detects both illegal and prescription drugs.

Types of Urine Drug tests

Immunoassay test (IA)

The IA is more common than the other test because it is a faster and more affordable test. However, the IA test often features false positives making the GC-MS is a more accurate method.

Ii. Gas Chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)

Most people employ this test to verify the results of the Immunoassay test. It covers a broader range of prescription or illegal drugs. However, this test takes more time and is costlier.

Urinalysis Drug Detection Times

Alcohol: 7-12 hours
Cocaine: 2-4 days
Heroin: 2 days
Morphine: 2-3 days
PCP: 8 days
Amphetamines: 2 days
Methadone: 3 days
Short-acting barbiturates: 1 day
Short-acting Benzodiazepines: 3 days
Long-acting barbiturates: 3 weeks
Long-acting benzodiazepines: 30 days

What to Note During a Urinalysis?

You will collect the urine sample in a private area using a container issued by a lab technician or doctor. The sample’s temperature will be measured to check if it is viable for testing. Remember, false positives are likely to feature in a Urinalysis. Certain medicines and supplements influence false positive.

They are:

Herbal remedies
Supplements
Over-the-counter medication
Prescription medicine.

It is crucial that you notify the technician or doctor of the previous indulgence in the above supplements and medicine.

Blood Drug Test

The blood screening test will reveal the parent drug rather than the drug’s metabolites, which are usually inactive. Thus, blood screening offers the most accurate results compared to other tests. Metabolites arise as residual after your body metabolizes the parent drug. Since blood screening does not test for these metabolites, it is becoming challenging to beat it.

Why Blood screening is not common

It is costly
It is an invasive test
The results take a long period to be available.
Sophisticated equipment is needed
Consumption of adulterants prevents drug detection.

Blood Screening Drug Detection Window

Alcohol: 10-12 hours
Cocaine: 1-2 days
Heroin: 12 hours
Morphine: 6-8 hours
PCP: 24 hours
Amphetamines: 12 hours
Methadone: 24-36 hours
Codeine: 6-12 hours
Benzodiazepines: 2-3 days
Barbiturates: 1-2 days
Cannabis: 2 weeks
Ecstasy: 1-2 days
LSD: 2-3 hours
Crystal Meth: 24-72 hours
Cotinine: 24-72 hours

What to Note During Blood Screening

Blood screening has short detection times, and this makes it easy to beat for many drug users if they abstain before the test. You are advised to avoid adulterants because they will be visible in the analysis and will deceive the technician or doctor.

Saliva Drug Test

It is also called the oral test. The saliva drug test is ideal for testing for recent drug consumption. The popularity of the mouth swab is rising by the day as it is easy to administer, gives results in good time, and the results are hard to influence and rarely tampered with. Moreover, it is used to test for a drug that has been ingested almost immediately.

A mouth swab is often used to test for the use of drugs like marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, amphetamines and methamphetamines. The detection times of a saliva test are influenced by age, weight, height, tolerance level and metabolic rate.

Saliva Drug Test Detection Window

Drug: Noticeable time: Disappears in:

Alcohol immediately 12 hours

Amphetamine 5-10 minutes 72 hours

Methamphetamine 5-10 minutes 72 hours

Cocaine 5-10 minutes 24 hours

Opiates 1 hour 7-21 hours

Marijuana 1 hour 12 hours

What to Note in a Saliva Drug Test

The test is administered using either a swab applicator or a sponge. The swab applicator should stay for three minutes between your cheek and lower gum. You may only remove it when it has been saturated. Oral test kits often feature indicators to tell you when to remove the swab applicator. A change of colour is the most common indicator of saturation. After that, the results will be available in 7 to 10 minutes.

Hair Follicle Drug Test

A Hair drug test will check for both the drug and its metabolites. The average growth rate of hair is 1cm a month. Thus, it is a test that can prove drug consumption in the preceding three months. You can carry out the analysis either in a hospital, a lab or even at home.

50-120 hairs are used in the test. Cleaning hair, dying it or applying the product on it before the test will not influence the results. You should contribute hair from various parts of your head to avoid bald spots.

A hair follicle test detects a drug five days after you have consumed it. Unless you cut your hair, it holds a prescription for at least three months. The test is highly reliable because it will indicate both the drug type and frequency of consumption.

Hair Follicle Drug Test Detection Window

Drug: Detection time: Disappears in:

Methamphetamine 5 days 90 days

Cocaine 5 days 90 days

Codeine 5 days 90 days

Marijuana 5 days 90 days

Morphine 5 days 90 days

Heroin 5 days 90 days

Ecstasy 5 days 90 days

Phencyclidine (PCP) 5 days 90 days

How EBB Tide Treatment Centers can help

EBB Tide Treatment Centers offers you safety and confidence in beating drug addiction. We acknowledge the uniqueness of each person’s case and that each person’s path to recovery is unique. Thus, the skills and expertise of our team are used to guide you to the best treatment regimen you need.

If you get to the point where you blame an aspect of your life to drugs, it is time to look us up. This is an indication that you are facing the adverse effects of the drug, and you need help. The staff of EBB Tide Treatment Centers is well oriented and its facilities geared to providing the right road to recovery. It features essential pillars of recovery from drug addiction.

Your safety

Your first step to addiction recovery is safe. We measure our safety in terms of your exposure to the temptations and the drugs themselves. We implement this safety using a zero-tolerance policy on drugs around our facilities and a daily routine to occupy your mind. These routine features therapy, nutrition and fitness.

Addiction Counselling

The road to recovery from drug addiction needs a lot of guidance and professional monitoring. EBB Tide Treatment Centers has experienced and oriented counsellors to handle the task. They are a trustworthy, non-judgmental and knowledgeable team able to create a unique treatment regimen for you. You can confide in them without worry that your business will be discussed elsewhere.

Learning

Recovery from drug addiction is a learning process. We will educate you on the various drugs and their side effects such as withdrawal symptoms. We teach you how to cope with temptations and addiction. We employ practical learning tools to help you prevent a relapse. Moreover, we show and advise you on alternative lifestyles and how to maintain them.

Peer Support

Some of us want our recovery process to be discreet. All of us need a source of companionship and motivation. EBB Tide Treatment Centers will bring you and your peers together to conquer similar milestones. You will not be alone in recovery, and you can share some of your experiences as you learn from those of others. An individual goes faster, but a team goes further. Despite your need to a quick recovery, EBB Tide Treatment Centers wants you to have a lengthy if not full-term recovery.

Discreet Recovery

Some of our patients prefer a private recovery process. EBB Tide Treatment Centers is accommodative of that. We respect and honor your decision regarding who should know about your recovery. EBB Tide Treatment Centers will uphold patient confidentiality unless you authorize the release of your information. This act boosts patient confidence and helps them to focus wholeheartedly on rahab.

Recovery Follow Up

EBB Tide Treatment Centers has uncovered that employing follow-up measures often prevents relapses. We help you transition back into your life with ease. In case you experience difficulty or a query, our counsellors are usually a phone call away.

Conclusion

Drug addiction is usually progressive moving from bad to worse and vice versa. Thus, it should be attended to at the slightest indication. Drug addiction is a huge challenge not only in the US but all over the world. Drug tests were invented to perceive use and misuse. They have further been employed to create drug-free zones, for example in schools and work premises.

More often than not, people are misinformed about drug tests, distinguishing them and their windows. Biological drug tests include drug screening your urine, blood, saliva and hair. Each biological test varies in administration method, detection windows alongside other facts.

Drug detection times are a hot topic when it comes to drugs. They vary a lot and are influenced by factors such as the drug itself, the biological sample used, method of drug consumption, frequency of consumption, body fluid balance and cut-off concentration the lab uses to screen.

For an extended period, people have preferred the urine test over any other test. However, this preference is shifting to saliva. The change is influenced by the fact that saliva is more natural to retrieve, shows immediate results and can trace recent consumption of drugs. What’s more, urine tests are challenged by false positives, while the results from mouth swabs are challenging to influence.

The blood test is considered the most accurate test because it will identify the presence of a drug rather than its metabolites. However, adulterants can be used to mask the presence of a drug when using blood screening. Otherwise, it is challenging to hide results from blood screening.

The hair follicle test, on the other hand, will trace both the drug and its metabolites. It can determine prior consumption that happened three months before the test. This test is also tough to mask. Cleaning the hair or using the product on it will not hide the presence of drugs in any way. However, it takes five days after consumption to detect the use of a drug-using this method.

If you identify with drug addiction or positive results in your drug test, you should not feel like this is the end of the road. A rehab company can help you get tested for drugs and help lead you back to a drug-free lifestyle.

EBB Tide Treatment Centers are licensed to take charge of your rehabilitation program, which entails creating a recovery process and monitoring complications that may arise from the process. We offer a safe environment with facilities and professional counsellors to provide round the clock recovery.

You should take time to educate your friends and family about the effects of drugs to prevent addiction cases. Should they arise, it is better to call EBB Tide Treatment Centers for help rather than to try and tackle it on your own.