Specifying marijuana detection times is not simple to answer and because of this lots of myths are being floated around. People say that marijuana will give a positive result from a single use even after weeks, months or even years of consuming it.
The factors that decide the exact time for returning to negative in a marijuana test are – person’s health, test type and the strength and history of previous consumption of the drug.
Marijuana detection times
You can define a detection period as the elapsed time after consuming a drug at which the positive results are still shown in a specified testing method. It is often cited as 90 days in many places.
For example, the detection period for hair test is 30 days whereas in urine test it is only 3 days. For other methods it is only in hours.
The above figures are only indicative because detection periods can change dramatically between two people due to factors – gender, state of disease, drug interactions, genetic inheritance, person’s age, drug type and the way the drug is taken.
It is not advisable to use detection period tables for finding out the time for detoxification or to find out when a person will provide a negative result to a drug test.
Cut-off levels
Marijuana testing is done to find out the concentration of a drug above a certain level and not for just finding out the presence of the drug. Many people are unaware of this. Cut off levels are levels beyond which a person is deemed to be positive in the lab test. The cutoff levels differ between countries.
Limitations
People think that the detection times given in the detection tables will directly apply to them; unfortunately this is not the case.
1. Each person has his own metabolic rate and also age and health status play a crucial part in it. If 2 persons consume the same amount of drug the drug concentration will differ between them after sometime.
2. Smoking the drug or injecting the drug will have different detection period.
3. Quantity of drug taken and frequency of usage makes a lot of difference in detection period.
4. Cutoff levels differ between countries and this also affects the detection times.
The detection periods for urine testing for a person who has taken marijuana orally are as follows. These are bound by the above limitations.
Casual user 1-2 days
Moderate user up to 10 days
Chronic user 10-28 days
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Tags: detection times, drug test, drug testing, Marijuana
