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Usually, when you smoke or vape marijuana, you’ll feel high for around 2-4 hours. However, did you know that marijuana can stay in your system for much longer? The THC in marijuana attaches to metabolites in your body. While it won’t make you high, it can make you fail a drug test. So how long can marijuana stay in your system?

How long marijuana sticks around in your system exactly depends on numerous factors, including your body weight, your metabolism, and how frequently you use it. You can also take measures to flush marijuana out of your system faster- especially if you have a drug test coming up. Here’s everything you need to know about how long marijuana stays in your system.

How Long Can Marijuana Make You High For?

Before considering how long marijuana stays in your system overall, it helps to know how long the effects of marijuana can last for. With so many different kinds of marijuana products available today, the length of your high can vary massively. Not only does your tolerance come into play, but the potency of the strain you use and how you use it also matters.

One study found that when you smoke marijuana, you’ll begin to feel the effects of THC instantly. Usually, the high peaks at around 15-30 minutes after consumption and wears off after around 3-4 hours. 

Another study found that vaping marijuana allows you to absorb more THC and produces stronger effects than smoking. However, like smoking, effects usually peak around 30 minutes and last for around 3-4 hours.

Different methods of consumption can also affect how long you’ll get high. For instance, research shows that the effects of edibles usually come on at around 30-90 minutes after consumption, peak at around 2-3 hours, and can last for as long as 4 to 12 hours. Edibles are much stronger than other methods of consumption as your body digests the THC and converts it to the stronger 11-hydroxy-THC.

How Long Can Marijuana Stay In Your System?

While marijuana will generally only make you high for a matter of hours, THC can stay in your system for much longer. When you consume marijuana in any form, THC binds to metabolites in your body can stick around for a while. These THC metabolites won’t cause any lasting effects but can make you fail a drug test.

Generally, THC sticks around in your system for around 5 days to a little over a week. One study found that around 80-90% of THC is flushed out via urination and excretion within 5 days of consumption. Although it can take a little longer to flush out the remaining traces, users can potentially be clear of marijuana within a week to 10 days.

Various factors can come into play here, with the most important being how much you smoke. If you’ve only used marijuana once, your system may be clear of THC within a few days. If you use marijuana frequently, marijuana might stay in your system for a couple of weeks or even longer. Your body weight, metabolism, and how you consume marijuana also have an impact.

How Long Before You Can Pass A Drug Test?

Since THC can stay in your system for a week or more, how fast can you expect to pass a drug test? There are two important things to consider here. First of all, how frequently you use marijuana will have a major impact. Secondly, the type of drug test you have to take also matters.

As far as saliva and blood test goes, you may be able to pass in as little as a day. These tests are much less thorough and as long as you drink plenty of water and don’t use marijuana too excessively, you’re unlikely to get caught. These tests aren’t used too often- saliva tests are usually only used to test whether you’re driving while intoxicated.

The most common type of drug test is a urine test. These can usually detect marijuana in your system for up to around 5-10 days. Users who don’t smoke often may be able to pass in just a few days as long as they drink water regularly and flush plenty of THC out. Frequent smokers may need to take special measures, such as using a detox kit, to pass.

Hair follicle tests are even more thorough. These can detect marijuana for up to a month or two in some users. Even if you shave your head, marijuana can still be detected in your hair and your body hair. Fortunately, these are rarely used and you won’t have to worry too much about them.

How Can You Flush Marijuana Out Of Your System?

Marijuana metabolites can stay in your system for a while. But if you want to flush them out as fast as possible, there are a few things you can do. People often use these methods to pass an upcoming drug test or even just to detox their system.

Drinking plenty of water is the most essential method. Since most THC is flushed out via your urine, the more you drink, the better. Other fluids, such as prune juice, cranberry juice, and green tea also help. These can both act as natural diuretics and have a detoxing effect on your body.

Your diet can also have an impact. You want to speed up your digestion and metabolism as much as possible. High-fiber foods will help you get rid of more of the THC in your body, while foods such as vegetables and protein will help boost your metabolism.

If you have a drug test coming up fast, you might even want to consider a detox kit. These are kits that contain certain drinks and vitamins which are designed to help you pass. They help you flush out as much THC as possible and hide the rest using Creatinine and B Vitamins. Some also come with a home testing kit so that you can ensure you test clean.

Conclusion

When you smoke marijuana, you can usually expect to get high for a few hours, although traces of THC can remain in your system for around a week. Luckily, users in Canada won’t have to worry too much since marijuana is legal to use. You can use as much as you want and even buy weed online from Leaf2go online dispensary Canada. If you do happen to have a drug test, make sure to drink plenty of water and look into buying a detox kit to make sure you test clean.