As cannabis becomes more socially acceptable across the United States and throughout the world, people who are newly introduced to the plant may find they have many questions. One particularly interesting question, when it comes to discussing cannabis is often along the lines, “how long does CBD stay in your system?”
Generally speaking, most are familiar with the notoriously long amount of time it takes cannabis to leave your system after consumption. With that said, the vast majority of drug tests are actually testing for trace amounts of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. So, with regards to the spread of legal CBD, this is not a good guide to go by.
For those who use CBD on a regular basis, this question can be important to ensure you give your body the right amount of CBD. Furthermore, some patients may have concerns about a drug test, despite it being fairly uncommon for a cannabis related drug test to include something other than it’s main psychoactive ingredient, THC.
With that in mind, today we will take a closer look at how long CBD stays in your system.
Cannabinoids: Fat-Soluble Compounds
While many drug tests focus on THC, which is fat soluble, there has become a notoriously long duration in which cannabis consumers must wait for this compound to leave their system. Due to THC being a fat soluble compound, it stays in the body for upwards of 30 days. This is also the case with CBD. The cannabidiol compound, along with all cannabinoids are fat soluble which allows the compounds to survive in our bodies for upwards of 30 days.
Furthermore, the fat soluble nature of cannabinoids ensures their raw pure consumption is less effective (without combustion of course). This can explain why edibles and combustibles are so popular with regards to cannabis consumption. The former is a common method of consumption, because edibles have been activated through the cooking process. While the latter, combustibles, such as smoking cannabis, will release the compounds through the use of heat.
Cannabis vs Hemp
With regard to the difference between cannabis and hemp, both types of plants develop the exact same CBD compound. In fact, the only difference between the two plants comes from a man-made distinction placed into regulations restricting the use of cannabis nearly a century ago. To be precise, hemp is simply any cannabis plant with THC levels less than 0.3%- basically meaning there are no noticeable levels of THC in the plant material if it were consumed.
These regulations were put in place to help create a differentiating factor between hemp and cannabis during the prohibition of cannabis. With that in mind, it opened the door to grow and process industrial hemp which has hundreds of applications, while also keeping the lid shut on cannabis legalization.
All of this means that extracting CBD from either the cannabis plant or hemp plant there is no difference between the CBD extracted, when the extraction process is done to have a completely pure end product.
How Long Does CBD Last in Your System?
The effects of CBD oil typically last between 2 to 5 hours with the strongest effects between the first and second hour.
Now that we have a better understanding of the cannabis plant, specifically, CBD produced from this plant, we can better understand how long CBD fully stays in your system after consumption. CBD or properly known as cannabidiol compound stays in your system for upwards of 30 days, in a similar manner to THC.
That being said, the compound does not get tested for by the most common types of drug tests screening for cannabis consumption. As mentioned, these tests tend to focus on the THC compound, instead of testing for CBD directly. Even with that in mind, if you want to be 100% certain you will pass any drug test in the next 30 days, it would be best to not consume CBD.
In closing, remember that all cannabinoids can stay within your system for upwards of 30 days. This remains true for the more popular and psychoactive THC as well as the non-psycho active compounds such as CBD. Even if most of the popular drug tests do not test for CBD directly, the safest way to pass a drug test will always be by not consuming.
