One of the most popular and preferred type of drug test is the urine test. This kind of test can detect marijuana in the system for many days or weeks after consumption. It should be important to state from the beginning that a marijuana urine test will not be done to detect the main psychoactive marijuana component, also known as THC or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and as such the test is in no way being done to check for your level of impairment. However, the test is done to detect the other non psychoactive cannabis component or THC-COOH, this metabolite can actually stay in the system for a number of days or weeks while not pausing any impairment challenges.
As a result of this metabolite’s, THC-COOH, unusually long presence in the system, any urine test conducted is more sensitive to the presence of cannabis when compared to any other common drug. Based on a survey conducted by Quest Diagnostics, at least 50 percent of drug tests done, all come back positive for cannabis consumption.
The best test to do is normally blood tests because they are the best when one wants to detect any recent drug use. Blood tests normally look for any active presence of the main psychoactive ingredient in the system. The only problem with this kind of test is that it is highly invasive and is quite difficult to administer. You will normally find drug blood tests being carried out when investigations to do with accidents, DUIs or injuries are being done. This is a way of finding out whether the person involved was acting under the influence of drugs.
What are the urine detection times for cannabis
How long cannabis can stay in urine will largely depend on how often one consumes the drug. A regular marijuana user, who say uses the drug maybe more than twice weekly, the active metabolite THC-COOH will build up to certain level which is normally quite high. This is normally on the basis of hundreds of nanograms per milliliter or ng/ml. This level can take a number of weeks for it to begin declining back to the normal levels of detection. This situation may be quite different for irregular consumers, who say consume the drug once a week. For such users it may take the drug a couple of days to clear.
Another form of test which is relatively new is the saliva test but the technology is yet to be proven. However, the only limitation for the saliva test is that it has not been well established as one of the best marijuana tests. Saliva tests are supposed to detect any recent drug use but this can range from several hours to more than a day. How it works is by detecting any secretions inside the mouth which cannot be washed off by mouth wash. These tests are preferred because as compared to urine or blood tests they are less intrusive.
