There comes a time in every stoner’s life where you’ve got to flush all the THC and other cannabinoids out of your system. Whether you’re just trying to pass a drug test in order to get that big promotion, or you just want to take a tolerance break so that your weed feels much more potent and you save money, there are a ton of different options available that will suit you for your individual situation. Whether you have a lot of time to flush or a very short amount of time, remember that when there’s a will there’s a way. The best thing you can do is stick with the program, and hang in there because you are strong and you can do anything you set your mind to!
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A Note on Drug Tests
Drug tests are a real pain for everyone. It’s an uncomfortable thing to go through, for one thing, and for another, it’s a little bit silly that it’s so hard to earn a living if you smoke a little bit of the cannabis in your free time. Meanwhile, you can be prescribed hard drugs by a doctor and still be allowed to work, no matter how disoriented and sick you may feel. Nobody bats an eye. While it isn’t fair or justified, it’s still a part of life, and understanding how they work is going to help you perform the best body cleanse for your needs and plan accordingly.
Most drug screens are performed by running a urinalysis, meaning, yes, you have to pee in a cup and get it tested for metabolites. Metabolites are the by-product of any substance after it’s processed by the body, meaning you metabolize almost everything. When you smoke marijuana, the THC levels in your blood will increase immediately.
When THC is metabolized, it becomes tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid (THC-COOH). Keep in mind that traces of THC and THC-COOH will remain in your fatty tissues for quite some time depending on a variety of factors. If you’re trying to get completely clean, you’re going to be at it for a while depending on the type of test you have to take.
To figure out if you are good to go for a drug test and your body is clean, you need to be able to determine the amount of THC and its metabolites in your body, as well as the type of test you’ll be taking, as well as the testing levels for your drug screen, ie, how many panels on your urinalysis, blood test, or hair sample.
What’s The Skinny on THC and Body Science?
THC is what the drug tests are looking for. If you don’t smoke much, the THC will usually dissipate and flush naturally between 1-3 days. This is for smokers who smoke socially every once in a long while and don’t smoke more than a bowl or two at a time. People who smoke daily are going to have THC in their system anywhere from one to two weeks, and heavy smokers can have THC in their system for up to a month.
THC sticks to fat, meaning that your fat cells will continuously leak THC metabolites into your blood constantly, so in a lot of cases, quick fix detoxes don’t do anything except mask the metabolites in your urine or blood. Your fat cells will continue to release THC metabolites into your system as time goes on, until they have no more THC to secrete.
THC metabolites begin to decay after a short time. The half-life of THC metabolites is one week. This just means that in 7 days, your body will have 50% less THC than it did when you initially quit. The general rule of thumb is that your body will be almost completely clean on its own between three and four weeks. However, this number is a bit different for everyone, because it depends on the frequency you smoked, your body weight, and how much weed you consumed.
There are a number of factors to look at if you’re trying to determine the amount of THC you have in your system post consumption. Ask yourself the following questions so you can determine what you need to do.
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How often do you consume?
The most important thing to look it is how often you consume THC. Are you a monthly social smoker? Do you smoke every so often when your pain flares up? Do you smoke daily? Take note of your frequency.
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How much do you consume?
Going hand and hand with the frequency of your consumption, how much do you enjoy? When you smoke are you just puffing on a one hitter or are you smoking a few bowls? The more frequently you enjoy cannabis as well as the actual amount you smoke will determine the amount of THC and THC-COOH sitting inside your fatty tissues.
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Are you overweight?
Nobody is perfect, and most likely because you consume cannabis your body weight is probably on the lower side, BUT, your body weight is an important factor to take into consideration when you need to understand just how long you’re going to have to stay away from weed. THC and THC-COOH is stored in fat, so the more fat you have, the more metabolites will be stored and continue to leak into your bloodstream after smoking.
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Are you healthy?
THC can’t be stored in your fat if there isn’t much fat to store it in! If you’re taking good care of yourself, eating well, and being active, it’s likely that your metabolism works a bit more efficiently. Be careful though, as rigorous exercise can potentially push a lot of the stored THC back into your bloodstream when you’re burning fat. Basically just maintain a healthy lifestyle and don’t work out too much before the test.
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How are you consuming your cannabis?
Are you smoking regular flower or are you doing dabs? Eating edibles or taking tinctures? Is the flower top shelf or brick weed? The potency is going to affect how much THC and THC-COOH your body stores. Obviously, more potent methods, like concentrates or edibles will likely stick around a lot longer.
Performing the Best Marijuana Body Cleanse for Your Situation
Now that you know a bit about the science of THC and how long is sits in your body, you can determine what you need to do. Now comes the cleanse information. If you’re trying to pass a drug test or just take a nice tolerance break while getting super squeaky clean, there’s plenty to be done.
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For A Tolerance Break
If your goal is just to make your weed more potent again, take a break! In either situation, the first thing you want to do is to stop consuming cannabis. To perform a full body cleanse, take a look at the questions above to determine how long you should wait before smoking again. If you want to expedite the process a bit, drink a lot of water and exercise. You have no looming drug test over your head, so pushing that THC and THC-COOH into your blood to flush it out is a good thing. Make sure you’re eating and sleeping well, too.
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For a Drug Test
Again, the best thing you can do is answer the questions above to determine how long you will need to stop smoking cannabis before your drug test. You’ll want to avoid exercise during this time because you don’t want to produce a positive test by accident. To cleanse, get those healthy habits in check. Make sure you’re eating and sleeping well, but also allowing yourself the time to properly flush. It’s a process, really. If you don’t have the time there are several things you can do to mask the metabolites, including a lot of water and vitamin b to give it the color back, and do it yourself detox kits.
By Nicole Flanigan
