Anything you ingest tends to stay in your body for longer than you may realize. For instance, food doesn’t completely move through your digestive tract for a full 36 hours.
But what if you have used some sort of drug or substance? The effects may wear off after just a few hours, but that does not mean it’s out of your system.
Different detection times
The detection times for drugs are vastly different from one to the next. Here are just a few examples of how long drugs can be detected by urine tests after they are used:
- Alcohol: 12 hours
- Amphetamines: 5 days
- Heroin: 4 days
- LSD: 8 hours
- Marijuana: 13 days
There are a few key considerations. First, the type of test is important. A hair test can often detect drugs for far longer than a urine test can — months, in many cases.
Another thing to note is that the amount of use may matter in whether or not a drug show up in your system. For instance, the 13 days listed for marijuana is for a urine test after one use. If a person is a heavy marijuana user, it could show up in the same type of test for 90 days. Smoking once at a party is far different, in this sense, than using it every day for years.
If you fail a drug test and get arrested, regardless of the type of drug involved, you need to know what legal defense options you have. Your future could be at stake.
