Marijuana, also known as cannabis among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The word marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana. According to the United Nations, cannabis "is the most widely used illicit substance in the world."
The typical herbal form of cannabis consists of the flowers and subtending leaves and stalks of mature pistillate of female plants. The resinous form of the drug is known as hashish. The major psychoactive chemical compound in cannabis is _9-tetrahydrocannabinol (commonly abbreviated as THC). Cannabis contains more than 400 different chemical compounds, including at least 66 other cannabinoids and tetrahydrocannabivarin which can result in different effects from those of THC alone.
Marijuana can stay in your system anywhere from 3 days to 90 days, depending on a variety of factors, the main one being how much THC your body stores.
THC is fat-soluble, meaning a heavier person will store more of it than a thin person. People also have different metabolic rates. Someone with a slow metabolism will need more time to rid their body of the THC and other marijuana components than would someone with a fast metabolism.
How much you've smoked, how often, and how frequently are other factors. If you're smoking enough that the effects of your last smoke are still in your system when you light up again, your body won't have a chance to eliminate the telltale signs of the first marijuana use before taking in the effects of the second use. The more you can spread out your marijuana intake, the easier it will be to cleanse yourself.
The type of test administered can also have an effect on whether or not marijuana is detected. While urine tests are the most common, they are also the least accurate. However, they are becoming more sensitive, and many now detect when someone has been "flushing" fluids through themselves in an effort to eliminate potential chemical traces.
Blood tests are much more accurate, though more expensive. Since THC is stored in the fat, the chemical is slowly released over time into the bloodstream, where it eventually passes through the liver, is cleansed, and then eliminated. "Cleansing" kits that are available for purchase have very little, if any, effect on THC levels in the blood.
And finally, your hair can be tested. Hair contains a record of everything your body has been through while that hair was growing. Short of cutting it off, there's nothing you can do to stop your hair from giving away your secrets. However, testing of hair is very expensive and rarely done by employers, so most people don't have to worry about this intense level of testing.
The typical herbal form of cannabis consists of the flowers and subtending leaves and stalks of mature pistillate of female plants. The resinous form of the drug is known as hashish. The major psychoactive chemical compound in cannabis is _9-tetrahydrocannabinol (commonly abbreviated as THC). Cannabis contains more than 400 different chemical compounds, including at least 66 other cannabinoids and tetrahydrocannabivarin which can result in different effects from those of THC alone.
Marijuana can stay in your system anywhere from 3 days to 90 days, depending on a variety of factors, the main one being how much THC your body stores.
THC is fat-soluble, meaning a heavier person will store more of it than a thin person. People also have different metabolic rates. Someone with a slow metabolism will need more time to rid their body of the THC and other marijuana components than would someone with a fast metabolism.
How much you've smoked, how often, and how frequently are other factors. If you're smoking enough that the effects of your last smoke are still in your system when you light up again, your body won't have a chance to eliminate the telltale signs of the first marijuana use before taking in the effects of the second use. The more you can spread out your marijuana intake, the easier it will be to cleanse yourself.
The type of test administered can also have an effect on whether or not marijuana is detected. While urine tests are the most common, they are also the least accurate. However, they are becoming more sensitive, and many now detect when someone has been "flushing" fluids through themselves in an effort to eliminate potential chemical traces.
Blood tests are much more accurate, though more expensive. Since THC is stored in the fat, the chemical is slowly released over time into the bloodstream, where it eventually passes through the liver, is cleansed, and then eliminated. "Cleansing" kits that are available for purchase have very little, if any, effect on THC levels in the blood.
And finally, your hair can be tested. Hair contains a record of everything your body has been through while that hair was growing. Short of cutting it off, there's nothing you can do to stop your hair from giving away your secrets. However, testing of hair is very expensive and rarely done by employers, so most people don't have to worry about this intense level of testing.
