Detection Times

Detection Times

Drug tests detect drugs as well as metabolites. Metabolites are the byprod-
ucts of a substance after it has run through your system. To determine
whether you will pass or not, it is important to know how much of the illicit
metabolites are in your urine and how much is tested for. Table 2.1 will give
you an approximation; however, it varies depending on a number of factors.
The substance being tested, testing method, and levels tested for are major
factors.

Hal ife of TetraHydraCannabinol

The hal ife of THC concentration ranges between 0.8 to 9.8 days. There is
too much human variation to even approximate how long THC will be de-
tected in the urine of an individual. Infrequent users with a fast metabolism
will have the shortest detection time. Frequent users with a slow metabolism
will have long detection times. The only way to estimate a detection time
is to consider the lower and upper bounds (3-45 days), and decide based on
the factors I've mentioned.

Approximate Detection Times of Various Substance Approximate Detection Time

Amphetamines 2-4 days
Barbituates (Short-Acting) 1 1 day
Barbituates (Long-Acting) 2 2-3 weeks
Benzodiazepines 3-7 days
Cannabinoids 3-45 days
Clenbuterol 3 2-4 days 4
Cocaine 2-4 days
Codeine 2-5 days
Euphorics (MDMA, psilocybin) 5 1-3 days
LSD 6 1-4 days
Methadone 3-5 days
Methaqualone 14 days
Nicotine ? 7
Opiates 2-4 days
Peptide hormones 3 undetectable
Phencyclidine (PCP) 2-4 days
Phenobarbital 10-20 days
Propoxyphene 6 hours to 2 days
Steroids 3 8 (anabolic oral) 14 days
Steroids 3 8 (anabolic parenterally) 1 month
Table 2.1: EMIT Detection Times of Substances in Urine

Approximate detection times of various substances

Try to call in sick on test day to delay one more day if possible; it will
help.
Other factors determining degree of intoxication include:

metabolism
fluid intake
tolerance
frequency of intake of substance
amount of substance
potency of substance
length of time you have been a user
amount of body fat (for fat soluable substances such as THC)

Frequency of Intake

If you use marijuana on rare occasions, your urine may be clean of metabolites
in less than a week. There is a common and strange phenomena that occurs
with chronic users. You would expect a chronic user to have the longest
detection time and the smallest chance of passing. This is not always the
case. A chronic user with a high tolerance will eliminate drugs quicker than
an occasional user. Chronic users have tested negative after a week long
binge.

Amount of Body Fat

Lipid tissue also makes a huge dierence. Skinny users not only have a faster
metabolism (usually), but also lack storage for THC metabolites. Fat will
cause a lag in excretion pattern, and lead to a longer detection time.

Predicting Detection Period

You should now be able to understand why an individuals detection time
for THC is so unpredictable. Please don't post or e-mail a question "how
long will it take..." This is the single most frequently asked question. Many
people can't even begin to estimate a detection for their own bodys, let alone
the unseen, unknown body of a internet explorer.
There is an inaccurate program that will plot a graph of time versus per-
centage of THC in your system given the days you've smoked. The program
is called CALC_THC.EXE and can be found on the internet. CALC_THC can-
not possibly be accurate because it doesn't have any way of measuring the
potentcy of the weed, and it leaves metabolism out of the equation.

Positive (defined)

50 nanograms of THC metabolites per milliliter denes a "presumptive pos-
itive" by NIDA certied labs. This value was originally 20 ng/mL, but too
many false positives resulted. So the level was raised to 100 ng/mL to reduce
false positives. As of January 1995, the threshold was lowered back down to
50 ng/mL because drinking water would easily bring a positive below 100 ng.
Be aware that these cutos are not universally consistent. I recently heard
of a lab using a 15 ng/mL cuto! Table 2.2 details the thresholds for other
substances.

Table 2.2


Substance	Screening cutoff	GC/MS Confirmation cutoff
Amphetamines	500	500
Methamphetamines	200	500
Barbituates	200	100
Cocaine	150	150
Marijuana	50	15
Opiates	1300	300
Phenyclidine	25	25

cutolevels are in nanograms/mL

Passive smoke and positives

"Second hand marijuana smoke in a car can cause you to fail the next day"
(Nightbyrd). It is possible that second hand [marijuana] smoke will raise
someone to the 50 ng/mL level; however, extreme exposure is required.
For instance, a closed car full of pot smokers and a non-smoker may render
the non-smoker positive for both urinalysis and the hair test, provided that
they are sealed in the car for a while. The Army did a case study where
volunteers were put in a room pumped full of smoke for an hour, ve times
daily. Subjects started testing positive after the second day. The non-smoker
would have to take in virtually as much second hand smoke as a smoker
inhales. Non-smokers are safe in a ventilated area, as long as they don't get
a hair test. According to Clinton, simply blowing crack smoke on ones hair
may cause a positive hair test. Second hand pot smoke doesn't aect the
hair test results as much as crack smoke does mainly because exhaled smoke
contains no THC. The only pot smoke that contains THC is the smoke that
hasn't entered the lungs.

Decreasing detection times

Increasing metabolism is probably the most eective way to decrease the
time period that drugs can be detected in your system. Metabolism can be
in uenced by physical activity, diet, and drugs.

Physical Activity

Physical activity can increase your metabolic rate as much as two thousand
percent! Nothing beats proper training taken to an extreme.

Diet

A high calorie diet is the next best way to increase metabolism. Consuming
mass quantities of high calorie food will increase metabolic rate by up to
10 percent. On the contrary, a malnutritious (light) diet could lower your
metabolism by 10 percent.

Using Drugs to Reduce Detection Times

Amphetamines will also increase metabolism. Unfortunately, labs usually
test for speed, and could get you into trouble.