The most important question to ask (if you dare to ask it) when told that you have to take a drug test, is “What type of test is it?”

�ճ󲹳�’s because THC and its indicators build up in different concentrations in different areas of the body. Blood and saliva tests only can detect weed for a few days at most, and traces disappear from urine in a month or less for most users.

Hair is a very different story. The byproducts of cannabinoids get to the hair follicle through the bloodstream, work their way into the roots and then latch onto budding hair strands. �������Ƶ a week later those strands grow out of the scalp (or the skin, for facial or body hair) – and keep growing. Traces of THC indicators remain in regular users’ hair for many months while CBD won’t show up on a standard workplace drug test of a hair follicle.

It’s easy to understand why tokers facing a hair follicle test panic are likely to panic. (Actually, the hair follicles themselves aren’t tested, it’s the strands of hair growing from them. �ճ󲹳�’s only a semantic distinction, however.)

Don’t panic if you’re in this predicament. All is not necessarily lost.

How Long Does it Take for THC to Leave The Body?

This is perhaps the only question that runs through the mind of a person who is expecting a hair follicle drug test. As you may know, THC is the compound found in cannabis that is responsible for the euphoric effects. And, the duration in which it may last in your body depends on several factors. They include; the strain used, the amount smoked, your body metabolism and the diet you eat.

How frequently you use marijuana also plays a significant role. For instance, it could take 21 days for THC to leave the body of a rare user. A weekly user, you would have to wait at least a month. In the case of a regular user, THC could last for three months in your body. Therefore, if you have got a pending hair follicle marijuana test, then you need to consider all the above factors. If the math doesn’t add up, you should look for the ideal alternative. Now that you have the above in mind. You need to prepare yourself for a hair follicle marijuana test.

But, What is a Hair Follicle Marijuana Test?

A hair follicle test is similar to other drug tests only that the specimen in question here is your hair. It is accurate and can detect the presence of a wide range of drugs, cannabis inclusive. This is why it is so popular among companies.

Unlike other tests, however, the hair follicle test is capable of detecting long-term use. This is because human hair, compared to blood and urine, it can store compounds for a more extended period.

What Happens During a Hair Drug Test for Weed?

First, the test will be announced at least a week or two prior. This gives you sufficient time to come up with a way to pass the test. During the day of the test, a physician will cut a sample of your hair. They will need at least three clumps with 50 strands each. The sample will be taken to the lab for screening. The hair is taken from the back of your head or any other body parts if you are bald. The physician takes about 1.5 inches of a hair sample. And since hair grows 0.5 inches in a month. This means that if you have traces of weed in the last three months, you are likely to fail the test.

Remaining Calm When Facing a Hair Follicle Drug Test

Not sure what type of test they’re going to give you? �ճ󲹳�’s the first reason not to panic because fewer than 10% of companies currently test hair. Employers often avoid follicle tests because they’re controversial; thick African-American hair is more likely to test positive than thin Caucasian hair.

The second thing to know won’t help many people, but here it is anyway. If the only time you’ve smoked or had an edible in the last few months was within the last week or so, THC hasn’t been in your system long enough for evidence to show up in your hair.

Here’s a final piece of good news: the majority of companies that do hair testing are looking for more serious drugs, like coke, meth and serious opiates, not marijuana. There’s a good chance that you’ll skate if all you do is indulge in some bud, particularly if it’s only once in a while.

However, the testing industry believes that the follicle test is nearly 100% accurate, and some experts are now recommending that it be used instead of blood or urine tests, particularly with the proliferation of products like synthetic urine. So hair testing isn’t going away anytime soon.

The first thing many people do when facing a hair follicle test (particularly guys, of course) is shaving their heads. �ճ󲹳�’s a panic move that will almost never help. You’d have to shave your entire body since the testers will take hair from somewhere else if you have none on your scalp. And even if you shave everywhere, it shouldn’t be surprising that drug testers have seen that approach before. Many will just flunk you automatically; less-strict testers and companies may let you come back in 90 days for another test, but don’t count on it.

So shaving is a bad idea. Here are some better ones.

Passing a Hair Follicle Drug Test for Weed

We have to start with a disclaimer. No method for fooling a drug test is foolproof, and many are based on urban myths rather than science. The only sure way to pass a hair follicle test (or any other type of drug test) is to abstain from pot, ideally for at least 3-4 months.

That doesn’t help much since no employer is going to say “Congratulations! You’re hired! You start Monday, and you’ll be drug tested in four months.” So let’s get down to business.

First, a hail mary. Bleaching and dying your hair multiple times may damage your hair enough to make it useless to testers. What happens after that, though, is up to them – they may let you slide, or they may automatically flunk you because they assume you’ve been playing games. And bear in mind that the major testing labs say publicly that the bleaching approach doesn’t affect their results; there’s no way, unfortunately, to know if they’re telling the truth or trying to stop people from trying it.

Some stoner sites claim that you can soak your hair in vinegar, acne treatments containing salicylic acid, liquid detergents and/or peroxide to remove some of the THC indicators. That will probably damage your hair, and reports from those who’ve tried it show that the results are hit or miss, at best.

The Old Style Aloe Rid Shampoo

Scared that you will fail the hair follicle test for weed? Then the old style aloe rid shampoo is the answer you have been waiting for. This product is exceptionally effective in removing traces of THC in your hair. It has increased in popularity since it is one of the fastest and most effective ways you can use to pass a marijuana hair follicle test. When you compare it to other alternatives such as detox, it is quicker and guarantees accurate results.

How to Use The Old Style Aloe Rid Shampoo?

Has your boss or employer just surprised you with a hair follicle drug test for marijuana? The old-style aloe rid can help you pass this test. You need first to ensure that you get the shampoo from a trusted vendor.

You should begin using it at least five days before a hair follicle test for weed. Wash your hair at least once a day. In instances where the test is in two or three days, you can apply the shampoo multiple times a day. It’s simple as that.

Your best bet may be finding the right shampoo. Many “detox shampoos” are sold online, but most aren’t good enough; they’re designed to wash away traces of THC from the outside surfaces of hair shafts. Follicle tests, however, are looking for signs of drug use inside the shaft. The few products that can make a real difference will chemically force open the hair cuticle, allowing the shampoo to wash away cannabinoid indicators from the area that will actually be tested. For best results, you’ll have to use these shampoos multiple times, including right before your test.

One last suggestion: buy a home testing kit. After you use any of these detox or cleansing methods, doing your own test will give you a good idea of whether the methods are actually working.

Conclusion

Do any of these approaches guarantee that you’ll pass your test? Probably not, but that’s one of the risks you signed up for when you made cannabis part of your lifestyle. The best idea is to put your stoner days on hold a few months before starting a job search if you’re serious about finding a great position at a company that drug tests.

The post How To Pass A Hair Follicle Drug Test – Hair Sample Testing For Weed appeared first on Weed News.

There’s only one reason anyone would really care how long pot remains in the body (unless they’re a researcher or they’re writing an article like this one).

People wonder how long marijuana stays in their system because they’re concerned about having to take a drug test. And as you undoubtedly know, employers can use several different types of tests.

�ճ󲹳�’s why the question should really be phrased differently: how long can pot be detected in the blood, in the urine, in the saliva, and in hair?

The answer still isn’t easy, because there are so many variables to consider. How much has someone smoked or consumed, and how strong was the weed? How often do they smoke, and how much do they weigh?

And are you really concerned about how long cannabis stays in the body – or about the length of time that signs of cannabis can be detected?

�ճ󲹳�’s a lot of questions. Let’s come up with some answers.

Tracing THC In Your System

The best way to understand how long cannabis stays in your system, and how it’s detected, is to know exactly how the processes work.

When you smoke (or vape) pot, activated THC and other cannabinoids hit the lungs and then enter the bloodstream, where they’re pumped by the heart to all parts of the body. The THC then binds to cannabinoid receptors (and receptor proteins) in the body’s key systems and organs, including the brain. �ճ󲹳�’s how the psychoactive effects of marijuana are able to take effect.

The process is similar but faster with tinctures, which are absorbed quickly through the lining of the mouth; it’s similar but slower with edibles since they’re first absorbed by the digestive system before they reach the liver and then the bloodstream.

Read more: How Long Does CBD Oil Stay in Your System

Something else happens to THC as it’s carried in the blood. It passes through the liver multiple times and each time it does, much of it is converted into a number of other substances. The ones that matter most (for our purposes) are called THC-COOH and 11-OH-THC, and they don’t perform any important function. However, those metabolites are stored in the body’s fat, and remain there for a much longer period of time than THC itself stays in the body. �ճ󲹳�’s what’s important about them.

Now that you have that information, here’s a question. If you wanted to know whether someone had used marijuana in the last month, would you test for THC that can usually be detected in the body for only 1-10 days, or would you test for THC metabolites that are stored in the body’s fat for a month or even longer?

The answer is obvious, and it’s why most tests administered by employers look for THC-COOH or 11-OH-THC. Those metabolites are longer-lasting indicators of whether someone has used pot.

Blood, Saliva, Pee, and Hair, Pee, and Hair

If the title of this section makes no sense to you, try singing it to the tune of “head, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes.” (And no, we’re not wasted at the moment, it just seemed funny.)

As we mentioned at the start, what people really want to know aren’t the details of how long marijuana stays in the system – but how long it can be detected after they’ve used.

You already know that pot’s effects usually wear off after a few hours at most. But the THC remains in your system long beyond that. THC’s “terminal half life” (how long it takes for 50% of a substance to be naturally eliminated by the body) ranges between one and two days for occasional users, and 3-13 days in regular users, depending on how strong the bud is. For THC to be completely eliminated, it can take five times that long.

However, most companies don’t test for THC (that test is expensive), they test for THC-COOH (or sometimes 11-OH-THC). And the amount of time that THC and THC metabolites can be detected differs greatly, depending on what type of drug test is performed.

Urine Testing

This is the most common method employers use to test for pot.

There are two different estimates from very reputable sources on how long THC metabolites will show up on a urine test. The one from the Mayo Clinic is easy to grasp, although a bit simplistic:

• Occasional users: 3 days
• Moderate users: 5-7 days
• Daily users: 10-15 days
• Heavy users: 30+ days

An earlier study, done at the Toxicology and Drug Monitoring Lab at the University of Missouri and regularly cited as definitive research, looked at two different testing cutoff points.

Most urine tests only register positive at a THC-COOH concentration of at least 50ng/mL, because that’s the level that’s been recommended by the government. The study showed that only heavy users might exceed that cutoff point for more than 30 days, and that just happened occasionally. Most chronic users passed the 50ng/mL test after ten days or fewer; the researchers said it’s unlikely those regular users would have any problem taking a drug test after ten days.

The experts also looked at the more rigorous 20ng/mL cutoff point, most often used by law enforcement and zero-tolerance employers and tougher to pass. At that level, THC metabolites can be detected for up to seven days in one-time users, and for 21 days or longer in chronic users.

So THC and/or metabolites like TCH-COOH are in your system for more than 30 days if you smoke regularly and heavily. But they probably won’t be detected after a month if you are a heavy smoker, and shouldn’t be detected after 10-15 days if you consume more infrequently.

Blood Testing

Fortunately, most employers don’t want to shell out the money for blood testing their staff or job applicants. Even though THC is no longer detectable in blood about five hours after each use, it builds up over time in regular, heavy users.

One study underscores how long that problem can last. The participants were regular smokers, but abstained for seven days – and at the end of that seven day period, about 25% still had detectable levels of THC in their blood, and 100% still had detectable levels of THC-COOH.

In fact, THC-COOH testing is a more difficult problem for everyone. In casual but regular users, it can be detected for as long as seven days. In heavy users, it can remain in the body for an extremely long time, and it can be detected in a blood test 25 days or more after the user’s last smoke session.

The bottom line here is easy to figure out: if you’re an everyday or heavy user, you really don’t want to take a blood test unless it’s for THC, not metabolites. Otherwise, you’re only looking at a window of a week or less before you’ll be considered clean.

Saliva and Hair Testing

Saliva tests are more common than they used to be, while hair testing is usually done to look for hard drug use, not pot. The good news on both is that there are a number of questions about their accuracy and reliability when it comes to marijuana use, so their results aren’t likely to be considered as reliable as those from urine or blood testing.

For casual users, THC will show up in a saliva test for about a day, and the metabolites can only be detected for about three days. Heavy users will have a bigger problem if they’re given a saliva test based on THC metabolites, which can remain detectable for almost a month.

Hair tests won’t show evidence of recent, first-time use, for a reason that makes sense if you think about it: it takes 7-14 days for new hair to grow out of the scalp. But after that, THC-COOH can be detected for as long as three months, as can residual THC in heavy users. It’s unclear whether THC can reliably be detected in the hair of casual users, as studies disagree substantially on that question.

Factors Affecting THC and Metabolite Levels

It should be obvious that the amount you smoke, the potency of what you smoke, and how often you smoke will all affect how much THC you take into your body, and how long the metabolites remaining in your system will last.

Those who aren’t regular smokers and have only taken a couple of tokes shortly before their test probably won’t have much to worry about, nor will those who’ve only taken a couple of bites of an edible. Heavy smokers, daily smokers, or those who favor and can afford the “good stuff” will have a much bigger issue, since they’re putting more THC into their system.

There are other factors that can also affect THC and THC-COOH concentrations in the body.

• Body fat: TCH metabolites are stored in body fat. So the more fat you have, the longer THC-COOH and 11-OH-THC will remain in your body and be detectable via testing. Skinny users with a low BMI will probably have a shorter testing window to worry about. (Women usually have more body fat than men, so they are more likely to retain the metabolites for a longer period of time.)
• Metabolism: Some people have higher metabolic rates than others, and their bodies will eliminate THC and its byproducts faster than those with slower metabolisms. This is very different than exercise; exercising right before a test can actually increase the chance that you’ll come up dirty.
• Hydration: Opinions vary on whether drinking a lot of water right before a urine test will help you pass (it can’t hurt), but research does show that if you don’t regularly drink enough fluids and are dehydrated, your detectable THC and THC-COOH levels will increase.

�ճ󲹳�’s a very long answer to what seems to be a very simple question. But as is the case with most subjects involving weed, there really are no easy answers – unless the question is “Wanna smoke?”

The post How Long Does Marijuana Stay In Your System? appeared first on Weed News.

Failing a drug test because you were around someone else who was smoking weed? It sounds almost ridiculous.

Better safe than sorry, though, so let’s look into the possibility.

What the “Experts” Say

If you ask drug testing companies they don’t use the word “ridiculous,” but they do claim that passive exposure to cannabis smoke isn’t enough to come up dirty. Well, at least they try to claim it.

For example, US Drug Test Centers (which conducts tests for individuals and companies across America), says “exposure to second-hand smoke is not enough for you to test positive for marijuana.” And Quest Diagnostics (one of the country’s giants in the testing industry) says “There are no published, peer-reviewed studies that indicate…that someone would test positive due to ‘passive’ or ‘incidental’ exposure.”

But they also hedge their bets. Later in their explanation, the first company also says “Is it possible to fail a drug test due to second-hand smoke exposure? Yes. Does that mean it’s likely or possible? Not at all.” And the second company reframes its position later in its statement, saying “You very likely (our emphasis, not theirs) won’t fail a drug test from secondhand smoke.”

All of a sudden, those strong statements don’t seem quite as strong. And the National Institute on Drug Abuse isn’t very helpful; it doesn’t address the issue of testing at all, only saying that a contact high from second-hand smoke is “unlikely.”

So what’s the real story? It turns out that actual research (and yes, it’s published research) sheds more light on the real possibility of being nailed, simply because you were in a room where other people were smoking up.

Actual Research on Second-Hand Smoke and Drug Tests

Some of the statistics used to prove why drug tests won’t come up positive from second-hand exposure are indisputable. For example, the Journal of Analytical Toxicology published a Johns Hopkins study, showing that the amount of THC in the blood of “passive” smokers is about 100 times less potent than in the blood of a nearby smoker.

�ճ󲹳�’s a strong argument for a dirty blood test for weed being “unlikely.” However, let’s look at studies and research, not an argument.

University of Calgary

The Cummings School of Medicine at the University of Calgary did research into the question as Canada prepared for legalized cannabis. And their study (published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal) found, among other things, that THC is detectable in the body if someone has been exposed to second-hand marijuana smoke in a poorly-ventilated room with the windows closed, for just 15 minutes.

Even more importantly for our purposes, the research found that the THC can be detected by a blood or urine drug test, depending on the levels of THC the test is designed to search for. Even more surprisingly, those levels can be detected for as long as 48 hours. Not all employers use testing procedures that would be triggered by the levels caused by second-hand smoke, but ones who have a “zero-tolerance” policy could quite possibly detect the THC and take punitive action.

John Hopkins University

The Calgary study went one step further than the 2015 research done at Johns Hopkins that we mentioned earlier. Those scientists set up two scenarios: one well-ventilated, one in an unventilated room that they aptly called a “hot box.” In each room, six participants smoked high-potency pot for an hour while six others (half regular smokers, half who’d never smoked) sat in the same room but didn’t smoke.

After the scientific smoke sesh, everyone was tested both for cognitive impairment and for blood or urine THC levels; the test period lasted 34 hours (with some rest allowed, of course). The nonsmokers who were in the well-ventilated room didn’t test positive or show any noticeable effects.

The ones in the hot box, however, reported experiencing a contact high and showed signs of slight impairment – and THC was detectable in their blood for as long as 22 hours after their exposure.

Conclusions That Can Be Drawn

What does all of this mean? Basically, it says that comforting statements by drug testing companies saying you won’t test positive after passive exposure are overstating the case. �ճ󲹳�’s why they clarify their positions further down in their statements with words like “unlikely.” And those are the words to remember.

It is, in fact, unlikely that you can fail a drug test from secondhand smoke. But if you’re sitting in a smoke-filled room, where everyone else is toking and there’s no real ventilation – yes, you definitely are at risk for a blood or urine test that’s going to take place in the next day or two.

The drug testing companies and university researchers may find that to be an extremely unlikely scenario; in fact, they even describe the hot box experiment as “extreme.” But most of us have been there, at one time or another in our lives (even if we weren’t the non-smokers). It may not be the usual way that someone comes into contact with passive pot smoke – but it’s certainly not impossible to imagine, either.

So what do you do if you’re facing a drug test, the day after you’ve been partying in a room filled with smoke?

How to Clear Second-Hand THC from Your Body

We’ll assume that maybe you’d had a cocktail or two, or were trying to hook up with someone else who was in the smoky room, and didn’t take the common sense step of simply leaving. Or maybe you had no idea you were going to be hit with a surprise drug screening. In any event, you’re left asking “what now?”

If you can’t postpone the drug test (for some reason, employers frown on that), try to flush your system as quickly as possible. Drinking about a half-gallon of water, or liquids that are high in electrolytes like Gatorade, will speed things up and hopefully flush enough THC to let you pass the test. You can also try to mask the THC by taking 100 milligrams of vitamin B-2 or B-12 a couple of hours before the test. The best idea is probably to do both.

In short, if you started feeling a contact high when you were in a smoky room, you probably have enough THC in your system to be in danger of failing a drug test for marijuana – especially if your company has a zero-tolerance policy

And for future reference, if you find yourself in a room where everyone else is getting their party on and you’re not – at the very least, open a window if you plan on staying. As we said at the start, better safe than sorry.

The post Can You Fail A Drug Test From Secondhand Marijuana Smoke? appeared first on Weed News.

Perhaps one day.

Perhaps one day pot will be fully legalized…any stigma attached to its use will disappear…and no one will have to worry about being drug tested when applying for a job (except perhaps pilots and surgeons).

Today, unfortunately, is not that day.

Just about any stoner or casual user knows the feeling in the pit of the stomach that comes with finding a great new job. “Do they drug test?” “What type of testing do they do?” “Do they only care about meth and coke, or are they going to blow me off because of weed?” It may not be fair, but it’s reality.

Take heart. As long as you’re not dead set on becoming a cop, a doctor or nurse, a child care worker or government employee, there are plenty of opportunities out there which will let you indulge during your off-hours without worrying about your job.

Here are some of them.

White Collar Jobs That Don’t Drug Test

Unless you’re going to be working for a mega-corporation that has mandated testing throughout all of its companies, you can often find high-paying jobs with tremendous responsibility without worrying about urine or blood test results. After all, who would imagine that the hard-driving boss in a suit and tie, who’s the first in the office and the last to leave, is actually a stoner?

• Managerial positions: We’re not just talking about getting a 50¢ raise to be a “manager” at McDonald’s. Statisticbrain did a comprehensive survey that found only 1-2% of company general managers, business managers, project managers, retail managers, and office managers had to be drug tested – and their median salaries ranged from $40,000 to nearly $100,000.
• IT jobs: If you believe the stereotypes, most IT guys and girls would be turned down for jobs if they had to first pass a test for weed. Employers must believe that too since only about 3% of developers, web designers and IT consultant positions require drug testing.
• Positions in “creative” departments: Companies apparently believe it’s better not to ask where all that creativity comes from; fewer than 4% of graphic designers, marketing staff, artists, and copywriters are drug tested before being hired.
• Financial and related services: Nearly anyone can work in real estate without taking a drug test, while only a few percents of insurance agents and loan processors have to pee or give blood. It’s only employees at major banks that are more at risk.
• Freelancing: Whether you’re a writer, programmer, developer, photographer, event planner or bookkeeper, working freelance can provide a number of benefits that make your personal life your own. Deciding not to give yourself a drug test just happens to be one of those benefits.
• Entertainment: Many skilled employees, from screenwriters and producers to makeup artists and stagehands, can find work without being subjected to a drug test. Again, it often depends whether you’re working for a large conglomerate, a small indie company or as a freelancer – and whether you’re working in a professional environment or touring with a band. If you’re one of the performers? It’s almost expected that you’ll come up dirty.

Blue Collar and Unskilled Jobs That Don’t Drug Test

Unfortunately and unfairly, blue-collar workers and those without a specific skill are much more likely to be forced to take a drug test before being hired. Skilled factory workers and even union employees are often put under the microscope these days. We won’t bother speculating on the reasons; our guess is probably the same as yours.

In any event, here are jobs you might want to consider if you’re not ready to give up the green in order to earn some green.

• Restaurant and food industry: Fast food chains hardly ever bother making you take a drug test, even though some claim that they do. On the other hand, you’re more likely to be handed a cup or be sent to a lab before some of the major “family” sit-down restaurants will hire you as a server. Standalone or local chain restaurants usually don’t test, even for higher-level jobs like chefs and managers, either because they can’t afford to or they don’t want to drive away qualified employees.
• Beauty industry: The majority of salons and spas don’t test their employees. In fact, many stylists, nail techs, massage therapists, and estheticians work as freelancers so employers don’t even worry about whether they’re clean.
• Day labor and temp jobs: This is really up to the client who’s using the temp agency to obtain workers, but if you’re being hired for seasonal or short-term work there’s a much better chance you’ll escape untested.
• Locally-owned businesses: Small mom-and-pop shops are much less inclined to spend money on drug tests for their clerks, drivers and other employees, so they’re a great place to apply.
• “Unskilled” positions: Avoiding dog bites and oncoming traffic are certainly skills, but jobs like dog-walking and pizza delivery fall into this umbrella category, as do groundskeepers and custodians (lawnmowers and janitors to the politically incorrect). The more menial the job or the less experience it requires, the less likely you are to be tested.

If you’ve looked at ads or job postings recently, you know that it’s become common for companies that require a drug test to disclose that fact in advance. Your best bet before applying for a job is to read those ads carefully, and poke around online (Google searches will often lead you to information about specific employers and their testing policies). That can save you a lot of wasted interview time – time you could have spent “relaxing” at home.

The post Jobs That Don’t Drug Test – From Management To Menial appeared first on Weed News.

CBD is just about everywhere these days.

• You can easily purchase an enormous variety of CBD products online.
• CBD retail stores have opened all over the country, even in the smallest cities and towns.
• Upscale chains like Ulta Beauty and Neiman Marcus sell CBD products in many outlets, and most national supermarkets and pharmacy chains are planning to stock them. Some already do.

But CBD, like marijuana, comes from the cannabis plant. (Some are extracted from hemp, but hemp is a variety of cannabis with the THC bred out.) And despite increased legalization nationwide, many companies still test employees for marijuana use.

So what are the chances that simply using CBD can lead to a positive drug test – and cost you your job?

CBD and Drug Testing

You probably know that the cannabis plant produces a number of cannabinoids. They’re the compounds that, once “activated” by heat, are responsible for both the beneficial and psychoactive effects of the plant. There are dozens of cannabinoids in cannabis, but the best-known ones are THC (the intoxicant which gets you high when you smoke pot) and cannabidiol (better known as CBD).

Here’s the good news: companies don’t test for CBD use. Period. In fact, there’s no such thing as a commonly-available drug test for CBD.

Just as importantly, the chemical makeup of CBD is very different from that of THC, the cannabinoid that’s responsible for a positive result when you’re tested for marijuana use. What that means is that a commercial drug test won’t mistakenly identify CBD as THC. If you come up dirty on a pot test, it’s because there’s THC in your body.

But there’s bad news, too: you can test positive for weed, even if all you’ve ever used is CBD.

How is that possible? It involves several factors, including the type of CBD product you use, how it’s produced, and the drug test that’s administered.

SAMHSA Drug Testing Guidelines

Employers typically follow the guidelines set forth by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to determine the acceptable cutoff levels for the drug and drug metabolites detected during testing.

Understanding the THC Metabolite

THC causes the psychoactive effects and is illegal on a federal level in the USA where it is classified as a Schedule 1 drug. Employers regularly check for the substance using a urine drug screen. The urine test has antibodies that are tailored to detect the prominent metabolite 11-nor-delta9-caboxy-THC (THC-COOH) found in THC. The drug tests do not look for other cannabinoids.

Is Your CBD Pure?

When you purchase a CBD product – whether it’s oil, tincture, lotion, vape juice, capsules, edibles or some other form – there’s virtually no way to know exactly what’s in it.

The reason is simple. The government (either the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or state agencies) doesn’t test or even regulate most of the CBD that’s on the market. So a product that’s simply marketed as CBD usually hasn’t been independently analyzed to determine what’s really inside.

That matters for a very important reason. When CBD is extracted from cannabis plants, it’s likely to contain at least a trace of all of the cannabinoids that were in the plants – including THC. In other words, many CBD oils, vapes or capsules do have a small amount of THC in them. It’s unlikely to be enough to give you even a slight buzz, but it’s there.

There’s another issue as well. A lesser-known cannabinoid, cannabinol (CBN), is found in many cannabis plants, mostly aged ones. It’s known for producing mildly psychoactive effects, nowhere near as strong as the ones produced by THC, but strong enough to be used in some sleep aids. But what’s important to this discussion is that CBN is extremely similar to THC in its chemical makeup, and can produce a positive THC result on many commercial drug tests.

So THC and CBD from cannabis plants can be a problem. But what about CBD that comes from hemp plants, the species of cannabis which is grown for purposes other than harvesting marijuana?

There’s a possible issue there, too. Hemp plants must have less than a 0.3% THC concentration in order to be “legal.” But 0.3% is more than zero – and if you consume enough CBD, there’s a possibility that you might have enough THC in your system to trigger a sensitive drug test.

So even products sold as “pure” CBD derived from hemp can potentially cause problems if you’re facing a drug test. Is there any way to avoid all danger of a positive test?

Yes. Instead of buying “pure” CBD, purchase CBD isolate.

Types of CBD Extracts

When you shop online or at a CBD store, you’ll see the products labeled in one of three ways.

• Full-spectrum: This is the most commonly available type of CBD. It’s usually extracted from the marijuana plant, and it contains all of the compounds normally found in the plant. That means in addition to CBD, it will contain at least traces of all other cannabinoids produced by the plant, including THC. How much THC (or CBN, for that matter) will be in it? It’s impossible to say; extensive and expensive testing would have to be done to find out, and manufacturers generally don’t do it. You can also purchase full-spectrum hemp CBD, but as we’ve mentioned, it can contain as much as 0.3% THC (or more, if the producer is careless or dishonest).
• Broad-spectrum: This type of CBD is less common but still widely available in oil form. Broad-spectrum CBD is full-spectrum oil that has had the THC “removed.” Theoretically, that means you won’t have a problem if you have to take a test for weed. In reality, you won’t have a problem if the lab that did the extraction did a perfect job and if the CBN (which remains in broad-spectrum CBD after THC is extracted) doesn’t trigger a positive result.
• CBD Isolate: Now we’re talking. Isolate truly is pure CBD, unlike the products labeled “pure” that are often sold in stores and online. It almost always comes from hemp plants, so there’s very little residual THC in it. It also goes through additional processing after extraction, including purification and filtration. �ճ󲹳�’s followed by a chilling process called “winterization,” during which all remaining plant particles, waxes, and other contaminants are removed. What remains is pure CBD, which is sold as a crystallized powder, like a crystallized slab which can be used as an edible, or as an oil or tincture – and may be difficult to find. But if you want to be completely sure that your CBD use won’t lead to a positive drug test, you should be using CBD isolate produced by a reputable manufacturer.

Types of Drug Test

Some drug tests are more sensitive than others to the presence of THC, which means there’s a greater possibility that they’ll be triggered by the use of CBD with trace amounts of THC.

The test most commonly administered by employers is a urine test, which can detect past weed use within three to 30 days. It’s also the test that’s most likely to detect any THC that might have been in the CBD product you’ve used.

Hair and saliva tests are more sensitive than urine tests but rarely used by employers. You’ll be luckiest if you’re asked to take a blood test, because THC only stays in the bloodstream for a period of hours, not days; it’s unlikely that trace levels of THC will ever show up.

As mentioned above, there’s no commercial test that will specifically detect CBD, so the presence of THC (or possibly CBN) is all you’ll have to worry about.

Protecting Yourself When Buying CBD

Using only CBD isolate is the best way to make sure you won’t come up dirty by accident. �ճ󲹳�’s not always possible, however. Here’s what else you can do to minimize the risk.

You can’t necessarily rely on labels since there’s no federal or state requirement governing CBD labeling. Even worse, studies have shown that as many as 70% of labeled CBD products claimed to contain an inaccurate level of cannabidiol, and 20% contained measurable amounts of THC.

However, unless you’re sticking to CBD isolate, the label is the best place to start. You should avoid any CBD that’s been extracted from marijuana strains of cannabis plants or full-spectrum CBD of any sort. If this basic information isn’t on the label, you might want to find a different CBD manufacturer or supplier.

Another smart move is to find out (if possible) where the hemp was grown. Since some states like California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington require more rigorous testing than others, and CBD from any state with a well-established hemp industry is likely to be more trustworthy. If the label doesn’t specify the CBD’s state of origin, ask the vendor.

If you can, stick with manufacturers who only produce CBD, preferably hemp-based CBD. If they produce marijuana products as well, or even CBD extracted from marijuana plants, there’s the possibility that their hemp-based CBD could be cross-contaminated by other products containing THC. Inadvertent or not, the accidental inclusion of THC in your CBD products can still put you at risk when taking a drug test.

Finally, know your providers. The more you trust the source of the CBD products you obtain, the more you can trust them for reliable information on what you’re buying.

The Bottom Line: Don’t Get All Worked Up Over It

All of the information we’ve considered is viewed from the perspective of the worst-case scenario. Is it possible you’ll get nailed unfairly after using CBD? Yes. Is it likely? Absolutely not.

In most cases, the tests administered by employers are what are known as five-panel or ten-panel drug screens, which search for signs of a wide range of substances. One of them is THC (or more accurately THC-COOH, which is what’s left in the body after THC is metabolized). The others, however, are cocaine, opiates, and other widely-abused drugs – and in most cases, those are what employers are really looking for when administering tests; the majority don’t really care if you smoke up every once in a while. There’s also a growing inclination to ignore positive weed results in states where marijuana has been legalized or decriminalized.

Of course, some employers do want (for some reason) to know if you’re a regular smoker and get high during your off-time. If you know that you’re dealing with one of those companies, and fear that you could be rejected or fired, you may want to be proactive and tell them in advance that you don’t use pot but do use CBD for (fill in medical condition here). They may take that into consideration if you do happen to come up positive.

One final note: there’s a persistent rumor that the body can turn CBD into THC all by itself, leaving you to suffer the consequences if you’re hit with a drug test. The rumor is based on a study that found CBD can be converted into THC in an extremely acidic environment like the stomach. However, there is no evidence that this has ever happened in real life, just in the laboratory. Experts say this simply doesn’t happen and isn’t something to worry about.

In short, the chance you’ll get nailed is extremely small and can be non-existent if you stick to CBD isolate – at least while you’re hunting for a job.

The post Does CBD Show Up On A Drug Test? appeared first on Weed News.

You’re offered a job – one that you want. There’s just one problem; you have to take a drug test before you can start.

Unfortunately, employers never give you a month to get clean before you have to pee in a cup (or less commonly, have your blood, hair, or saliva tested). You might get a couple of days warning, at most.

Can you still pass a drug test on such short notice?

Maybe. It depends on how often (and how much) you smoke, the type of test you have to take, and what you’re willing to do.

Heavy Tokers: Beware

It’s simply common sense. Occasional smokers won’t have signs of pot use stay in their bodies for very long. But those who smoke up (or consume weed in a different form) every day, much more of the telltale signs will build up in blood, urine, hair, and saliva – and will take much longer to vanish.

Exactly how long? The best estimates are a few days for occasional use, 2-3 weeks for regular use, and as long as six weeks for those who smoke multiple times every day. Since prospective employers aren’t going to give you a month or two before you have to take your test, the best advice is to get clean a couple of months before looking for a job.

However, that’s probably not realistic advice for most readers. Don’t worry, there’s still hope.

Types of Drug Tests

If your employer is going to test your blood, you’re in luck. It will only show a reliable positive result if you’ve consumed cannabis in the last day, at most. Don’t use for a few days, and there should be no issue. Saliva test swabs are becoming somewhat more common, but they are plagued with questions about their accuracy. They can supposedly detect weed for three days after usage, but many testers don’t trust them and many businesses stay away from them.

At the other end of the spectrum is hair testing, which can detect usage going back several months (or longer). There’s some good news there, though. Many companies don’t look for weed when they check hair; the test is allegedly “biased” because it’s more sensitive to thick, African American hair, so a lot of firms stay away from it for PR reasons. And the majority of employers who take a hair sample for drug testing are looking for meth or coke, not pot.

If you are going to have your hair tested, however, some claim that using Head and Shoulders, Rave or Neutrogena shampoo can lower detectable drug concentrations, and there are specific products designed for weed users which supposedly work even better. As a last resort, you can shave all hair on your body (not just your head) that’s an inch or longer, and claim you’re a competitive swimmer. That obviously isn’t an optimal strategy if you eat most of your meals at Taco Bell and Burger King, or if the drug testers aren’t dumb.

Now, to the most problematic – and we’re sorry to report, the most common – the type of drug testing. A urine test can accurately tell, particularly for heavy users, whether you’ve smoked or consumed pot in the last 30 days. That time frame requires some pretty drastic advance planning or some pretty drastic action to get clean in a hurry.

Getting Clean For a Urine Test

We’re sorry to report that most of the stoner detox recipes you see online don’t work. Lecithin, activated charcoal, herbal teas, vinegar, and cranberry juice aren’t going to clean your urine in days or, in many cases, even weeks. Neither are most of the “miracle cleanse” products often sold on pot-centric websites, although a few can speed the detox process up to ten days instead of thirty.

If you’re simply trying to clean signs of pot use from your system over a month or so, exercise and healthy eating (no junk food or red meat, lots of water and tea, plenty of leafy green vegetables and fiber) – and of course, abstinence – should do the trick.

Otherwise, it’s time for the more drastic action we’ve mentioned.

For two days before the test, drink as much water and urinate as much as possible (and naturally, don’t smoke at all). That will help dilute the concentration of drugs in your system. Having trouble peeing it all out? Take a mild diuretic.

On the day of the test, pee at least a little before you go in; the first urine of the day will have a higher drug residue concentration. Take 100 milligrams of vitamin B-2, which will contribute a yellow color to your urine; otherwise, the testers can tell you’ve been cleansing because your pee will be almost clear. Also take a creatine supplement a few hours before testing, because it will make your urine look more natural in lab tests. There are detox drinks on the market that contain hydrating fluids, B-2, and creatine all in one, if you have a little cash to spend.

An hour before the test, fill your bladder with as much water as you can hold, and when you’re ready to provide a sample, pee into the toilet first and then hold the stream, before filling the cup. Oh, one more thing: cross your fingers.

Really Drastic Measures

If you’re a fairly heavy smoker and don’t have much warning before you’ll be tested – and you’re willing to take a big risk – you can try to obtain a potent high-blood pressure diuretic like Lasix, although you need a prescription for it in the U.S. If you take 80 milligrams, drink a lot of water and urinate several times before taking the test, you might get lucky. (Pro and Olympic athletes are tested for Lasix for this very reason, but there’s very little chance that you will be.) Be aware that this method only works (when it does work) for a short period of time, just six hours or so; if you have to take a repeat test, signs of pot will be back in your urine.

Finally, there are last-resort measures like synthetic urine or “borrowing” clean urine from a friend and figuring out a way to hide it and provide it instead of your own dirty pee. (Helpful hint: labs often check the temperature of urine samples to make sure you haven’t been cheating, so the substitute urine has to be kept warm.)

It sucks to have to take a drug test, but it’s a fact of everyday life in the 2020s. If you want a little extra advantage before you hear the dreaded words “We require a drug test,” do a little online research on the companies you’ll be applying to. With a little creativity and diligence, you can often find posts on message boards that will tell you in advance what type of testing those companies do, and you’ll be able to prepare in advance – or delay your job application until you’re clean.

The post How To Pass A Drug Test: The Job Survival Guide For Stoners appeared first on Weed News.

Can you flush your system of THC and its metabolites by drinking lots of water or other liquids in order to pass a drug test for marijuana? Or is this myth? Nobody has directly studied it, but we can explore kidney physiology and cannabinoid pharmacology to see whether it is possible.

The controversy of drinking water to flush out THC

Today I am focusing on another common marijuana drug testing belief: that you can “flush out your system” of THC and its metabolites by drinking lots of water or other liquids (I will refer to this as hyper-hydration)

Don’t confuse this with drinking water immediately before the test to dilute the urine (which is a whole different topic). This is referring to drinking lots of water in the days and weeks leading up to the test with the hope that more THC or metabolites will be cleared out.

The hyper-hydration claim is highly controversial. �������Ƶ half of websites recommend it and the other half claim that drinking excess water will not help you pass a marijuana drug test.

For example, jezebel and wikihow fall into the pro-hydration camp (if you are getting your drug testing advice from wikihow, please stab yourself in the eye with a fork):

“Drink 20 to 40 ounces of sports drink per day to restore your electrolytes and keep you hydrated. Drink roughly 1 gallon (3.8 L) of water to flush your body of toxins. Drink the tea and other diuretics throughout the day as well.”

“Drink lots and lots and lots of water—gallons of it—from the time you learn about your test up until the big moment.”

On the other hand, others like Simple Cannabis and “THC Detox Master” (their words, not mine) fall into the anti-hydration camp:

“Drinking plenty of water several days before the test is of no use. Water does not help clean the THC accumulated in the fat cells.”

“…Drinking excess water does not help your body eliminate marijuana and its metabolites from your body, nor does it speed up this process.”

I love scientific controversy! But you probably just want to know whether it is worth the trouble of pissing every 30 minutes for the next two weeks so you don’t lose your job. Fair enough, let’s get this settled.

Basics of drug excretion by the kidneys

Nobody has ever studied whether hyper-hydration affects elimination of THC or its metabolites. However, we can still use our knowledge of pharmacology and physiology to arrive at an answer for whether drinking a lot of fluids has any chance of helping you pass a drug test for marijuana.

These are your kidneys. One of their jobs is to remove toxins, including drugs, from your blood. It does this by the process of renal excretion. There are several important processes involved in renal excretion that are relevant for our discussion today:

1. Filtration: Your kidneys use a filtration system where your plasma (the aqueous part of your blood) is filtered into the renal tubule. �������Ƶ 20% of the plasma that goes to your kidneys is filtered.
2. Reabsorption: After a molecule is filtered into the renal tubule, it can be reabsorbed back into the blood. Any molecule that can easily cross membranes (and most drugs can) will be highly reabsorbed.
3. Secretion: Some molecules are are actively pumped  from the blood into the renal tubules by transporters.

How hyper-hydration affects renal excretion

The effect of hyper-hydration on the elimination of THC and its metabolites has not been studied, but we do understand how it affects the processes of the kidney.

Many people would think that drinking a lot of water would increase filtration rate. However,  showed that in the short term, high hydration decreases filtration rate, and showed that drinking extra water has no effect at all on filtration rate over the long term.

Once you understand how the kidneys control the amount of urine production, it actually makes sense that filtration wouldn’t change by drinking more fluids. The water filtered by your kidneys into the renal tubule is almost entirely reabsorbed. Your kidneys do not need to create more urine by increasing filtration, they do it simply by reabsorbing less water.

What is the impact of hyper-hydration on the reabsorption of drugs and other molecules? In several cases, a modest decrease was observed in reabsorption. Why? As water is reabsorbed from the renal tubule to the blood, the drug becomes more concentrated in the urine. This concentration gradient drives reabsorption of the molecule into the blood.

When less water is reabsorbed, there is less of a concentration gradient and also the urine flow is faster, so there is less time for the molecule to cross the membrane into the blood. The net result is that drinking extra water can reduce reabsorption, which may modestly increase renal excretion of some drugs.

There is no evidence that hyper-hydration can affect renal secretion because it is an active process that does not depend on a concentration gradient.

Does hyper-hydration increase the excretion of THC and metabolites?

Here is the basic metabolic pathway for THC (for more details, read the Professor of Pot’s great guide on how THC is metabolized):

There are two important factors for whether hyper-hydration could possibly increase elimination of THC or any of these metabolites to a significant extent:

Is it reabsorbed? As explained above, hyper-hydration increases renal excretion only for molecules that undergo reabsorption.

Is renal elimination a significant percent of total elimination?: Renal elimination is just one pathway for drug elimination. If other elimination pathways happen much faster than renal elimination, an increase in renal elimination will have little overall effect.

So let’s apply each of these criteria to the four THC molecules:

11-OH-THC and THC-COO-glucuronide do not undergo reabsorption. Therefore, there should not be any effect of hyper-hydration on them.

THC and THC-COOH do undergo reabsorption, so it is at least possible that drinking a lot of water will increase their elimination. However, to what extent? Renal excretion contributes <1% to the total elimination of each. Data from other molecules indicates that hyper-hydration increases renal excretion by about 1/3. Even if we increase renal excretion by 10 times, renal excretion of THC and THC-COOH will still be insignificant relative to other pathways.

Myth busted?

Nobody has yet tested the effect of drinking a lot of water on flushing out THC and metabolites from your body. However, we assessed whether it is even possible using our knowledge of the physiology of the kidney and cannabinoid pharmacology.

Our analysis shows that drinking extra water cannot have a major impact on the elimination of THC or its metabolites. This myth is busted, but you should still stay well hydrated!

The post Drinking Water to Pass a Drug Test: Does It Work? appeared first on Weed News.