The length of time that CBD (cannabidiol) remains in your system varies from person to person, although generally, it should be gone within five days. The dosage and regularity with which a person administers CBD affect the speed at which the body processes the compound. Individual factors like BMI, metabolism, and activity levels also come into play. In some cases, cannabidiol can linger in the body for weeks. So, when asking, “How long does CBD oil stay in your system?” you should look at the full range of aspects to get the most accurate estimation.
Contributing Factors to How Long CBD Can Stay in Your System
To understand how long CBD remains in the human body, we must consider the unique situation of the individual user. Two people could use the same CBD product and experience a difference in terms of how the CBD interacts with their bodies.
Dosage
As you would expect, there is a positive correlation between cannabidiol dosage and the length of time before it leaves the body. The more you take, the longer it will stay in your system.
Frequency of Use
It’s not just how much CBD you take in one go but how often that you take it that influences how long it sticks around. Over time and with regular use, this cannabinoid can accumulate in the body. Whilst a new user might be CBD-free after a day, or so, traces could remain in someone who is consuming CBD frequently for up to a week or longer. Consuming CBD extensively and at over 10 mg/day can make the CBD detectable even 3 weeks later.
However, results can vary. One study, published in the journal “Pharmacology Biochemistry & Behavior,” found that after a one-week dosing break, there were just 1.5 nanograms of CBD detected in the blood of 14 patients who had received a daily dose of 700 mg for 6 weeks prior.
BMI
The metabolites in CBD have a high lipid solubility, which means they are fat-soluble. The body stores the substance in its fatty tissue, where it is slowly released over a period of days. So, those with a high body mass index (BMI) or a high amount of body fat are able to retain CBD metabolites for a longer time than those with less body fat, or a lower BMI. This is because the cannabidiol molecules have more area to settle.
Activity Levels
Exercise is one of the most efficient methods to remove CBD from the body, as it encourages you to sweat, which in turn encourages you to drink more fluids. CBD exits the body via both sweat and urine, vastly reducing the time that it stays in your system. Additionally, a cardiovascular workout such as running or aerobics can help to break down the fat cells where cannabidiol is stored, and stimulate your metabolism, too.
Water Content
Oil and water don’t mix, and it’s the same when it comes to your standard CBD oil. This affects bioavailability, which refers to the amount of the product that the body is able to absorb and use.
Nowadays, however, water-soluble CBD is widely available on the market. Compared to typical CBD oil, which has around 5-10% bioavailability, a water-soluble solution can have up to 100%. In turn, the higher bioavailability and increased cannabidiol in your system mean that it stays there for longer.
Metabolism
Your age, gender, genetics, and lifestyle are among the many factors that contribute to your general health, including your metabolism. When CBD is metabolized at a slower rate, it will be eliminated from the body more gradually.
Food
The low bioavailability of CBD oil, when ingested orally, is due to the fact that it must first travel through your digestive system. A lot of it gets lost on the way, destroyed by your stomach acid or metabolized in the liver.
Eating certain fatty foods, such as avocado and olive oil, can help the cannabinoid to survive this journey, leading to higher absorption rates and an increased bioavailability rating, which in turn extends how long it stays there.
Conversely, taking CBD products on an empty stomach speeds up the entire process of metabolization from start to finish, so it leaves your body faster.
Method of Administration
There are many consumption methods when it comes to consuming this phytocannabinoid. They all have varying bioavailability rates and influence how long CBD stays in your body in different ways:
- Smoking
- Vaping
- Sublingually
- Eating and drinking
- Creams and lotions
Taking CBD sublingually, i.e. holding CBD tincture, oil, or other liquid under the tongue for a few minutes before swallowing it, increases the length of time that CBD stays in your system. Sublingual consumption encourages absorption through the mucous membranes in your mouth, and your body can process CBD with a bioavailability of around 20%. Data collected from a variety of CBD studies showed CBD to have a half-life of 2–5 days following chronic oral administration.
When you smoke CBD, the bioavailability is around 30%. The cannabidiol enters your bloodstream relatively quickly via your lungs. Using a CBD vape pen also produces quick results and has a higher bioavailability at around 50%. The CBD leaves your body much faster this way compared to ingestion.
Ingesting CBD via edibles like CBD gummies is a common method of consumption. CBD gummies bypass the bitter taste associated with oils and tinctures. Oral consumption of this sort does tend to delay the effects of CBD. You can expect to wait one to three hours depending on several factors, including how much you have eaten or drank previously. How long does CBD stay when you consume it this way when compared to inhalation? Eating cannabidiol will keep it around in your system for much longer than if you were to inhale it.
CBD products that are applied topically, like creams and lotions, are one of the slowest methods of consuming the substance. It also takes your body more time to clear it out of your system this way.
Will Using CBD Products Cause a Positive Drug Test?
Just because you have it in your system does not mean that you will still feel the effects of CBD. It also does not mean that it would be detectable in most drug tests. The purpose of drug testing is usually to find other cannabinoids such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the psychoactive compound in cannabis.
Cannabidiol contains trace amounts of THC, but they are negligible. One method of detecting substances like this is via a urine sample. Urine samples will detect tetrahydrocannabinol levels above 50mg/ml with a peak urinary level after 3 hours.
Due to the tiny amounts of THC in cannabidiol, in order to produce a positive drug test result, you would need to frequently consume more than 2,000 mg of cannabidiol. Considering the average dose is 20-40 mg (patients with a serious medical condition or who are in severe or chronic pain being at the higher end of that scale), you would be extremely hard-pushed to get a false-positive result at a drug screening. Even high doses like 50 mg for CBD oil users weighing over 225 lbs shouldn’t come close to producing a false positive at a drug test.
A test can find cannabidiol in blood plasma for up to five hours, but past that, blood tests won’t detect it.
Hemp-derived CBD products, as with products derived from a cannabis plant, will have THC levels that vary based on the brand. A hemp plant is the same species as cannabis and is defined by a tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of 0.3% or less. Although natural THC levels are low, some processed products that are made from a hemp plant (such as gummies) can have a higher concentration.
The video below explains, why it would be extremely unlikely to fail a drug test from CBD products:
Types of CBD Oil for Drug Screening
If you are concerned about needing to provide a urine test and undergoing a drug tests screen, you can switch to a product that contains less THC, or even none at all:
- CBD isolate, which contains very low levels of THC, if any. CBD isolates are the pure form of the substance, with maximum CBD concentration. People who dislike the taste of broad or full-spectrum CBD oil often choose CBD to isolate as it is refined, making it odourless and tasteless.
- Broad-spectrum CBD, which contains some cannabinoids and compounds from the cannabis plant, but typically no THC. This is the middle-ground between full-spectrum and isolate.
- Full-spectrum CBD, which contains all compounds from the cannabis plant, including THC, at levels of up to 0.3%.
In the event of a THC-positive drug test where the testee claims CBD use solely, you can expect further methods of testing. The possible case of substance abuse can be determined by the presence of THC-COOH. This is uniquely produced through THC consumption.
How Long Does CBD Oil Stay in Your Body?
Cannabidiol should be no longer detectable anywhere from 1-2 days up to a few weeks from the time of consumption. To completely understand how long CBD stays around, you should consider all of the factors in this article.
