2012-02-07

Drug Half Life and Drug Testing

Every drug has its own unique half life which can be used to determine if a someone has ingested the substance recently. Whether illicit or legally prescribed, a drugs half life is the whole of time which is required for the trace attention of a drug within the red blood cells to be reduced by one half. Naturally put, a half life is the duration of time it takes for half the whole of a drug to leave the body. Heavy or consistent substance abuse will increase the half life of the drug while infrequent users will expel the toxins from their body at a faster rate.

Half lives of the most generally abused illicit drugs follows: regular marijuana users retain a half life of 10 days while sporadic users have a Thc life cycle (the active and traceable component in marijuana) of only 2 days. The half lives of Methamphetamines are 15-20 hours while cocaine is in the middle of 1-2 hours.

Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

The half lives of the most generally abused designate drugs follows: The painkiller opiates, such as Vicodin, hydrocodone, hydrocodeine, oxycontin, Percocet, and oxycodone all have a half life in the middle of 4 and 6 hours. Anti-anxiety benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium have a time frame in the middle of 14-18 hours. Drug testing for most pills ingested needs to occur speedily after consumption due to the bodies rapid rate of expulsion for most generally prescribed drugs.

Understanding the differences in the middle of the half lives of drugs is vital when determining the best recipe for drug testing. Urinalysis and urine test strips work best for drugs with longer lives such as marijuana and opiates while hair follicle tests and saliva drug tests will still show traces of drug use surrounded by speedily expelled drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine. When trying to uncover and stop substance use and abuse, considering the half lives of each drug will enable you to find the most definite drug testing kit for definite results unique to your situation.

Drug Half Life and Drug Testing