How Long Does Cocaine Stay In Your System? Know Some Secrets!

Do you often ingest cocaine in a party?

Do you use it on a regular basis?

And…

Do you wish to know that for how long does cocaine stay in your system?

If yes, then you might want to look for the answer here.

I’ll be sharing some secrets about cocaine detection period for various drug tests such as urine, blood, saliva, hair, and sweat. I would also like to enumerate some factors on which cocaine detection period depends.

You can keep these things in mind before giving a drug test. (Only, if you’re lucky enough to know about it in advance.)

Before telling you the secrets, I would like to share some statistics, and facts about cocaine.

What is Cocaine?

A class of drugs? An unlawful stimulant?

Confused?

Well, Let me get this straight.

Cocaine is a powerfully addictive substance that can alter the structure and functioning of your brain (if used repeatedly).

It is removed from coca leaves and is regularly blended with its identical substances such as cornstarch, baby powder, and even sugar.

The most common way of its intake is by sniffing it.

That means, it makes its way in the circulation system through nasal tissues.

To what extent does it remain in your body?

The impacts of cocaine ordinarily wear off really fast say, in around 20 to 30 minutes.

In any case, your pee will regularly demonstrate the medication somewhere between 12 hours and three days.

What’s more, the individuals who take it all the more regularly will have it stay in their circulatory system for quite a long time – meaning particular tests will demonstrate its presence for up to three months.

What are the impacts?

It makes individuals feel like they’re large and in charge – as per Frank.

Essentially, the individuals who do a line will most likely feel wide conscious, sure and ‘large and in charge’ – however it won’t keep them going for long.

Likewise, it has less engaging impacts including raised temperatures, quick heart rates, and influenza-like side effects.

‘Cocaine Use’ Statistics

According to the NSDUH, in 2009 alone, approximately 4.8 million young Americans (age 12 and above) had used cocaine. More than a million youngsters had used cocaine at least once before this survey was conducted.

According to a study by “Monitoring The Future”, 1.6 percent of the students in the 8th grade, 2.7 percent in the 10th grade and 3.4 percent in the 12th grade had used cocaine in 2009.

Moreover, nearly 14 percent of the adults in U.S. have tried cocaine at least once. The maximum use of cocaine is among young men (of age 18-25).

More than 400,000 infants of U.S. are born addicted to cocaine – Shocking But True!

Some Interesting Facts About Cocaine

• In 1859, Albert Niemann isolated cocaine from coca leaves and discovered its anesthetic effects.
• The natives of South America chewed coca leaves to stay active and keep exhaustion at bay. It was first observed by Spanish explorers.
• In 1863, Angelo Mariani, a French chemist produced a wine called Vin Mariani containing 6.5mg cocaine per ounce and 11% alcohol. It was used for medicinal purposes and was awarded a Vatican gold medal by Pope Leo XIII.
• In 1884, John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola, containing cocaine and caffeine. However, in 1906 the company removed cocaine from the ingredients of this iconic drink.
• In 1884, Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist proposed the use of cocaine for the treatment of morphine addiction and alcohol. But, this led to the cocaine addiction of his patients.
• Nearly 500 kg of coca leaves is required to get 1 kg of cocaine.
• Some pain relievers like Esterom, Lidocaine, and Novocaine etc. can produce positive results for cocaine as it contains benzoylecgonine.

How Long Does Cocaine Stay In Your System: Factors that Influence the Same

1. Dosage of Cocaine

The time period for which cocaine aka crack stays in your system (during a drug test) depends on its ingested dosage. If you ingest a large amount of cocaine, it’ll take longer time for its active metabolite to fully clear from your body.

Higher doses of cocaine and frequent usage can extend the detection window. Regular and heavy cocaine use may result in a more prolonged elimination time.

2. Means Of Administering Cocaine

One of the factors that can influence the detection period of cocaine in your body is the means of its administration.

Cocaine can be taken orally or through intravenous injection. It can also be smoked or snorted.

— Snorting Coke:

People who snort snow (cocaine) will get high and the effect will last between 10-30 minutes. This modality of administering cocaine is associated with an elimination half-life of around 30 minutes.

This means that it would take nearly 2.75 hours for cocaine to be eliminated from your body. However, its metabolite – benzoylecgonine can be detected for a much longer period.

Normally, the cocaine dosage among people who snort is greater than those who inject it. As a result, coke can be detected in the system for a longer period.

— Smoking Cocaine:

Those who resort to smoking cocaine will get high much faster than the ones ingesting it orally. The elimination half-life of coke is nearly 45 minutes (if you have smoked it). This means cocaine will get eliminated from your body within 4 hours.

However, benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite, can be detected for a longer time duration in your body.

— Intravenous Injection Of Coke:

Individuals that inject cocaine intravenously will get high within minutes of injecting it. The period of its effect will be between 5-15 minutes.

The elimination half-life of cocaine, in this case, will be around 5 minutes. The drug would get cleared from the system within half an hour, but benzoylecgonine will be detected for a longer duration.

Coke will be cleared quickly from the body of the person injecting cocaine because of the quicker onset of action.

— Oral Ingestion:

People who orally ingest coke will get high almost after an hour. The elimination half-life of cocaine ingested orally will be 1 hour. In this case, it can take nearly 6 hours to eliminate coke from your body. But, cocaine metabolite will be detectable even after that.

3. Time Span

If you’re ingesting cocaine from a long time, then let me tell you that coke will stay in your body for a longer duration. On the other hand, if you’ve recently started taking cocaine, it’ll stay in your body for a shorter period.

The chronic cocaine use will lead to the storage of metabolites within fatty tissues, like liver. Coke metabolites will continue accumulating within these fatty tissues with each usage. As a result, your body will take significant time to fully detoxify from cocaine.

4. Frequency Of Drug Use

Besides time span over which any person has been ingesting coke, a frequency of its usage also plays a vital role in determining the detection period.

For instance, a person ingesting cocaine 25 times a month may find that cocaine will stay in their system for much longer than a person ingesting only 3 times a month.

Actually, when a person takes coke frequently, neurophysiological adaptations take place. It slows down the process of drug clearance from the body.

5. Purity Of Cocaine

Unlike cannabis (that has different strains), cocaine isn’t modified to have these effects. It’s generally sold as freebase (crack) or cocaine hydrochloride (powder).

Coke is mixed with other chemicals by many drug dealers to elicit a different effect among the users. However, the detection period of cocaine in your system will not be affected much after mixing. The particular factor that can affect its stay in your system is the purity.

If you’ll take highly purified cocaine (that has not been mixed to increase its weight), it will contain a greater amount of the active ingredient. As a result, coke will be retained within your body for a longer period.

If you have ingested diluted cocaine, it’ll have the less active ingredient and consequently, your system will be cleared quickly.

6. Some Other Factors That Can Determine The Detection Period Of Cocaine

In addition to the factors mentioned above, there are some other factors that can affect drug elimination from your body.

Your metabolism, genes, water intake, dietary intake, another drug intake, lifestyle, etc. may affect on – How long does cocaine stay in your system?

If you have got a fast metabolism and have ingested a small amount of coke per pound of bodyweight, it’ll be cleared from your body at a faster rate.

On the other hand, if your metabolism is slow and you have taken a large amount of coke per pound of bodyweight, it’ll be cleared from your system at a slower rate.

How Long Does Cocaine Stay In Your System

Various drug testing methods are employed to detect cocaine or its metabolites in the body. These include urine tests, blood tests, saliva tests, and hair tests. Each method has its own detection window.

Let’s check out each of them.

How Long Does Cocaine Stay In Your Urine?

Urine drug test is the most common way to detect the recent drug use. Most of the MNC’s and law officials use cocaine urine test to confirm if the person is taking drugs or not.

As with other drugs, there isn’t any exact detection period for cocaine in urine. Cocaine metabolites can be detected in your urine for up to several weeks after the last use. It depends on a number of factors mentioned above.

Normally, benzoylecgonine can be detected in urine for about 2-4 days. But, if you’re a chronic user of cocaine, then it can be detected for 10 days and even more. Urine test for cocaine is a preferred testing method because it’s cheap and could detect recent cocaine use accurately.

You’ll be tested positive for coke if the amount of benzoylecgonine would be 300 ng/ml. You may be asked for a follow-up drug test to verify the initial result. Urine sample having 150 ng/ml or above amount of cocaine metabolites will be tested positive for cocaine use.

How Long Does Cocaine Stay In Your Blood?

Blood Test is one of the most accurate ways to test the body for cocaine and its active metabolite benzoylecgonine. Blood tests can detect the cocaine intake within 5 hours of its use. Its metabolites can be detected in your blood for 48 hours after the last use.

Well, this is an invasive process to detect drug use and is mostly used when the urine sample of the convict is tested positive. Normally, police use urine sample or saliva sample for a cocaine drug test because they’re non-invasive and cheaper than blood tests.

How Long Does Cocaine Stay In Your Saliva?

Mouth swab tests are common at workplaces. Nowadays, law officials are also using this test to detect drivers driving under the influence of any drug. Saliva drug test for coke can detect cocaine use within just 10 minutes of its use.

The mouth swab test can detect cocaine in your system for approximately 2 days depending on a number of factors mentioned above. These tests aren’t as accurate as blood tests or urine tests but still used because they’re quick and noninvasive.

How Long Does Cocaine Stay In Your Hair?

Have you heard of Cocaine Hair Test? You may not have probably heard of hair drug tests because they are not common. Also, they are quite expensive and time-consuming.

But, you’ll be shocked to know that hair test can detect the presence of cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine for up to 90 days. Isn’t that a long time? I know it’s a pretty long time, but if you’re involved in any serious crime, you may be asked for this test.

Normally, a standard hair test, including GC-MS confirmation requires 100 mg sample of hair (90-120 strands). The collector will cut a minimum length of 1.5 inches of hair from the scalp. The reason for it is quite simple – Human head hair grows at an average rate of about 0.5 inches per month.

However, cocaine hair test has a disadvantage. It cannot detect the presence of coke in new cocaine users. Because it usually takes nearly a week for cocaine metabolites to get detected in hair follicles.

Sometimes, it happens that your hair become contaminated with cocaine from the external environment. Normally, a good hair wash will be able to remove these external contaminants.

But, you don’t need to worry about it as the test examines only the amount of cocaine metabolites inside the hair follicles. Those external contaminants will have no effect on the hair drug test results.

How Long Does Cocaine Stay In Your System For Sweat Patch Test?

Have you heard of Sweat patch test for drugs? Well, it’s not a common method to detect the presence of cocaine or its metabolites in your body.

In this test, the patch will be placed on your skin like a band-aid for a few days. These sweat patches are designed to detect the presence of cocaine and its metabolites through the perspiration.

The patch will be taken off after 7-10 days. It will be sent to the laboratory for analysis using the GC-MS system. Cocaine levels in sweat patches can vary by a location of patch placement. Some other factors can also affect the accuracy of this test.

Due to the reasons mentioned above, sweat patch test isn’t normally used. Sweat patch tests can detect the presence of cocaine for 10-14 days.

Closing Words For Cocaine Users

Now, when you know about – How long does cocaine stay in your system, you may be able to save yourself. The duration of cocaine’s presence in the human body varies depending on multiple factors such as dosage, frequency of use, metabolism, and the testing method employed.

Understanding these factors can help individuals facing drug tests or seeking treatment for addiction. It is important to note that even if cocaine is no longer detectable in the body, the drug’s long-term effects and potential for addiction require professional help and support to overcome.

If you or someone you know is struggling with cocaine addiction, seeking medical assistance and treatment is crucial for a healthier and drug-free life.

But, I’ll suggest you to stay away from cocaine as it can spoil your life as well as your loved ones.

Let’s take a pledge to stay away from drugs and help our country prosper. If you like our post, you can share it with your friends. If you have any questions, you can ask us in the comments section below.

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