How Long Does CBD Stay in Your Body?

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How Long Does CBD Stay in Your Body

For time immemorial, humans have been smoking weed to get high. The earliest records of it could be found in ancient Indian texts as well as in certain Chinese records dating back thousands of years. Marijuana has, for long, been considered a magic drug which has medicinal properties as well as can be smoked recreationally. Millions of people across the world smoke weed and there’s a good chance that there’s millions out there who are getting stoned right now, as you read this article! There’s even a chance that you too are high while you read this! If you are on this web page, probably the question you are wondering about is – how long does CBD stay in your body?

Over the course of this article, we shall be discussing it in detail. But first, we shall attempt to answer what are CBD and THC and why every stoner must know about them. Next, we shall be taking a look at the main question at hand – how long does CBD stay in your body. Followed by that we shall be looking at some drug tests and then answer many other questions that you might have about smoking weed and the effect that it has on your body. Let us address the primary questions straight up:

What are CBD and THC?

CBD stands for cannabidiol while THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol. Both of these are naturally occurring compounds found inside the cannabis plant. However, the first thing that you must know about the difference between these two is that THC is actually the thing that gets you high while CBD has a different kind of effect on your body. If we are talking in technical terms, THC is a psychoactive substance while CBD is non-psychoactive in nature. 

Another difference between CBD and THC is that while CBD is present in good volumes in both, Hemp as well as Marijuana plants, THC is present in 0.3% or lesser quantities in hemp but in much higher quantities in marijuana. Interestingly, if you look at the molecular structure, both these compounds have the same composition – 21 Carbon atoms, 30 Hydrogen atoms and 2 Oxygen atoms. However the way they are structured is different and hence both of them have a different effect on you. 

In simpler terms, both THC and CBD have medicinal benefits as well, but since CBD doesn’t get you ‘high’ some states allow you medicinal marijuana which has low THC and high CBD. Research on how CBD and THC can help you with different ailments is still ongoing but there are some areas in which clear-cut benefits have been found. Here’s a look at them:

  • Medicinal Benefits of CBD

CBD is great for treating seizures, pain, psychosis, migraines, anxiety, depression, nausea, inflammation and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), etc.

  • Medicinal Benefits of THC

THC too has certain medicinal benefits as it helps treat those suffering from glaucoma, low appetite, insomnia, pain, anxiety, muscle spasms, etc.

How Long Does CBD Stay in Your Body?

Let us now address the biggest issue here: the question of how long does CBD stay in your body? How long can it be before you go in for a medical test and they are not able to detect whether you’ve had weed! This is something that bothers a lot of people, particularly those who have an organizational policy where they might be tested for drug consumption every now and then. This is also important for those people who are going to join a new job as being a ‘stoner’ is something that many people see as a negative attribute. Hence, this is an important question.

There are a number of factors that influence the amount of time that trace CBD stays in your body. First off, the quantity of CBD that you’ve consumed matters a lot. The more of it that you consume, the longer it is going to stay in your body. Secondly, another thing that matters is how frequently do you consume it – if you are someone who smokes or consume CBD frequently, it tends to ‘build up’ in your body and might therefore be there for a longer period of time. However, if you are someone who consumes it only occasionally, there’s going to be a good chance that it will clear up comparatively sooner. 

There are many additional factors, including your body type and your body mass index which also affect the amount of CBD that stays in your body. Your metabolism also has a major role to play here. Consuming CBD on an empty stomach will make sure that it gets eliminated faster however if you’re consuming it on a full stomach it’s going to be around for longer. If you have consumed CBD in the form of creams and lotions, it will take quite a while before it gets eliminated out of your body. For those who consume it in the form of oils and tinctures, or edibles, it will also take quite a while. However, the fastest to exit your body is CBD that is vaped. 

Understanding the different Drug Tests for CBD

Thankfully, if you are consuming only CBD, then there’s a lesser to no chance of it showing up in the tests. However, if it contains THC it will certainly show up in the reports and considering that there’s a trace amount of THC in almost every CBD product, it shows up when the tests are done. Whether or not the CBD that you have consumed shows up in your drug tests depends largely upon the kind of products that you have consumed. This includes three different types of products:

  • CBD Isolates – these contain only CBD and they do not show up on the tests. 
  • Full Spectrum CBD Products – these contain a large amount of CBD in them but also contain THC as these are extracts from the plants that carry all sorts of naturally occurring compounds in them.
  • Broad Spectrum CBD Products – these are pretty similar to the aforementioned CBD products but there’s an effort made to eliminate THC out of them. 

Can Marijuana Be Detected in Tests?

Yes, Marijuana can be detected in tests and it can be detected in various ways. However, the least effective way to test it is via the bloodstream. Weed does not last in your bloodstream for a really long time. Unless checked right after you’ve consumed marijuana, there’s a very rare chance of weed being detected in a blood test. Blood tests and saliva tests are more of a thing for showing current levels of intoxication. Apart from testing blood, one can also check for marijuana in other tests – including hair tests, but these are unreliable. Urine tests are another way to detect marijuana usage though even they show up for a short time. 

However, when checking for drug use in workplaces, marijuana is usually checked with the means of immunoassay test, which is a part of ‘false positive’ testing, where GCMS is used against positive results to determine the use of marijuana. 

In what forms is CBD available?

CBD is available in different forms including but not limited to edibles such as anxiety gummies, oils, and tinctures, creams and lotions which can be directly applied on to the body, capsules, and pills, and it can also be vaped by using vaporizers. There are a number of different forms in which CBD that is extracted from marijuana/hemp plants can be consumed and all of them give you some sort of a medicinal benefit while not giving you the kind of ‘high’ that consuming portions of a THC-rich marijuana plant would get you.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Smoking Weed

Here’s a look at some of the most commonly asked questions that many stoners tend to have about smoking weed:

1. Why do I feel ‘high’ after smoking marijuana?

The primary reason as to why you feel ‘high’ after smoking marijuana is because of the presence of a substance called THC, which stands for tetrahydrocannabinol. THC is a compound which naturally occurs in marijuana plants and carries psychoactive properties. When you smoke weed, the THC present in it combines with your body’s endocannabinoid system and interacts with your cannabinoid receptors. Once this happens, neurotransmitters are released into your brain which is what alters the sense of reality and makes you feel the ‘high’ that you are getting out of smoking weed.  

2. What are the effects of smoking weed?

Smoking weed has a number of different effects and these effects might vary based on the different strains of weed that you might be smoking. However, there are some common effects that smoking marijuana has on your body – first off, you will feel an altered sense of reality as you might feel that the walls are moving and the floor is a little wobbly. You might notice certain patterns, etc. Another common effect that smoking weed has on stoners is that you don’t understand how fast or slow the time is passing. Furthermore, another major effect is that your reaction time and response time to situations slow down, hence it is advised to not do anything that involves dangers such as fire, sharp objects, operating machinery or driving while you’re high on weed. 

Apart from these, there are a number of medicinal properties of marijuana as well which we have discussed above while talking about CBD and THC. Weed helps you with a number of health ailments such as pain, inflammation, IBD, muscle spasms, and glaucoma among others. Due to its pain alleviation properties, marijuana is often recommended to those going through chemotherapy. Furthermore, marijuana is also recommended for those suffering from various mental health issues such as PTSD, Anxiety and Depression among others. 

3. How much weed should I smoke?

Now, this is something that you must gauge for yourself. While there’s no such thing as a ‘weed overdose’, smoking too much of it might want to make you throw up sometimes. However, the best way to know you’ve had enough is when you start feeling sufficiently high. Remember to take it slow and easy as weed does take some time to ‘hit’ you. However, when it comes to medicinal marijuana, the doctor who prescribes you the weed will tell you exactly how much you’re supposed to consume and how. We strongly advise you to follow that. 

4. Why do my eyes get red after smoking weed?

Bloodshot red eyes are among the most common side effects of marijuana and they are quite the ‘tell’ that someone has been smoking marijuana. This happens because of THC, due to which blood vessels and capillaries in the eye tend to dilate thereby reducing the pressure in the eye (which is also a popular reason as to why marijuana is a good treatment for those suffering from glaucoma). This decreased pressure thereby allows more blood to flow towards the eyes. 

5. Is CBD safe to be consumed by breastfeeding mothers?

CBD is not recommended for breastfeeding mothers. We strongly recommend any women who plan on breastfeeding children to stop consuming CBD or weed-related products at least 7 to 10 days before they start that. The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) too has advised against it because there are currently no researches which show the kind of impact CBD might have on babies but it is known that the breastmilk does carry some CBD which might reach the kids. 

6. Why does weed smell?

The pungent smell that we typically associate with marijuana is because of the presence of terpenes, which are compounds present in many plants and flowers and give each of them a different kind of smell. Some plants have a sweet smell because they attract insects which help them in pollination. The basic purpose of weed having a pungent smell is that it keeps insects and pests away but attracts humans. 

7. Can marijuana be detected in urine?

Some metabolites can be detected in the urine, however, only recent marijuana use can be spotted in a urine test. When it comes to organizational tests, most organizations use urine tests to detect any frequent marijuana consumption by their employees. 

8. Where is it legal to smoke weed?

Smoking weed is allowed in many countries across the world such as Canada, South Africa, Uruguay, Peru, and Spain. In addition to this, there are many other countries where laws allow you to smoke weed recreationally in some states while allowing weed for medicinal purposes in some, such as in the US (there are also a few US states where weed is banned for both these uses). And then there are some countries where there’s a blanket ban on smoking weed such as Egypt where it is a major crime. 

Conclusion

We hope that this article on ‘How long does CBD stay in your body’ helped answer this exact question as well as helped you gain a better insight into some other aspects of smoking marijuana as well. CBD and THC are two things that all stoners must know about and we hope that we have provided a sufficient insight about that. Do let us know if there’s anything more that you would like to know or if there’s something that we might have missed out on in the comments below or drop us an email about the same and we shall get back to you! Till then…

Happy Growing! 🙂

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