Regardless of whether you are new to CBD or whether you have been a regular user, the question of how long does CBD stay in your system stumps even the best of us. I am an avid CBD user and a tester; I have had my fair share of using CBD but the question is still challenging to me because of the number of factors involved in how the human body processes CBD.
I will try my best to list down all factors that determine how long it takes to digest CBD and how long does CBD oil stay in our system. The one thing I am sure about this topic is that CBD doesn’t stay longer than a week in your system.
A study was conducted recently where users were administered about 700mg of CBD a day for six weeks continuously. 700mg CBD is a relatively high dose for beginners but as the study concluded and administration of CBD stopped, the findings reported absolutely zero CBD in the body after just one week of stopping the administration.
Multiple pieces of research are being done to find out the exact duration of CBD in your System. However, it still would work differently for different individuals (because of different factors being involved). How long does CBD stay in your system also varies with different methods of consumption?
For instance, if you are vaping CBD, the absorption quantity depends on how long you hold the vapor inside. The longer you hold the vapor inside, the more your body will absorb CBD.
So how long does CBD oil stay in your system? The time taken for CBD to be out of your system is directly proportional to CBD’s half-life. It depends on how long it would take your liver, kidney or lungs to break down as well as filter half the amount consumed.
So, if it’s found that the half-life of CBD, when taken orally, is 1 to 2 days, after 1 to 2 days, half of the CBD consumed is already out of your system completely. In the next 2-3 days, only a quarter of CBD you ingested remains in the system and within 5-6 days of consumption, it completely leaves your system without any trace.
In other words, you can say that CBD lasts 2-3 days for light users 5-7 days for heavy users.
How Long do the Effects of CBD Last?
Even if the compound stays for days in your system, the therapeutic effects of CBD only last for a couple of hours or so. Again, how long the effect of CBD lasts depends on your method of consumption, your body weight and whether you are a regular user, beginner or first-time user.
The best way to discern how long the effects of CBD last is to observe how quickly the effects begin to show. Let’s say that you ingested CBD sublingually (oral drops) or inhaled it (vaping), the effects will start showing quicker than other methods of consumption but the effects won’t last for long.
If you are looking to prolong the effect of CBD in your body, you should go for CBD edibles like CBD gummies or apply CBD topically. However, when you apply CBD topically, it only affects the area it is applied to and not the rest of the body.
How Long Does It Take for CBD to Work?
Throughout my research on CBD, I found some people claiming to get immediate effects of CBD while some claimed it took them a couple of hours to feel the effect, there were also some like my Colleagues Abu & Sharad who claimed they felt absolutely no effects of CBD whatsoever.
There is a very good reason behind the difference in the time taken for CBD to show its effect. For you to understand how long does CBD stay in your system, it is of utmost importance to consider how the CBD was consumed. Various consumption methods have a significant impact on how the human body processes CBD and how long the CBD lasts in your system.
Let’s take a good look at the different methods of consuming CBD and how long does CBD stay in your system.
- CBD Sublingual Oil
Sublingual drops also known as CBD Oil Tinctures are evidently the fastest method of CBD consumption available in the market today. CBD Oil Tinctures work remarkably fast and its effects are felt almost instantly, sometimes as quick as a couple of minutes after ingestion.
After using sublingual CBD products like CBD oil tinctures, I found out that the best way to feel the effects quickly is to keep the drops under your tongue for approximately 30-60 seconds and then swallowing it.
If you use it with this method, the CBD liquid gets absorbed faster because it totally bypasses the digestive system and gets absorbed through the salivary glands, thereafter it proceeds to your bloodstream and breaks the blood-brain barrier for you to feel the initial effects of CBD.
How long does CBD stay in your system if taken sublingually depends on the amount you have taken and the strength of the CBD.
- CBD Edibles
CBD Edibles are highly popular among users and in the market in general. They are one of the easiest and most discreet ways of taking your CBD dosage. There are different types of CBD edibles available in the market, though the most popular ones are CBD Gummies, CBD Cookies, and CBD butter.
Similar to oil tincture, to get the effect of CBD it needs to enter your bloodstream and break the blood-brain barrier. By eating CBD edibles, the CBD goes through the digestive system and passes through the gut. After that, the liver metabolizes it and the active CBD chemicals reach your bloodstream.
This is one of the slow-acting methods of consuming CBD. This method can take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour to show the effects. To quicken the time it takes to effect, you should try CBD in an empty stomach. (I did it and it worked wonders).
How long does CBD stay in your system if the consumption method is through edibles is a question I still have to figure out.
- CBD Topicals
Topicals are CBD infused beauty products (also pain relief balms and ointments) that can be applied topically. CBD is a proven and effective method of pain management. Numerous researches have found out that the endocannabinoid system is activated in response to pain and delivers an analgesic effect.
CBD Topicals are a unique method of CBD consumption as the effects are not felt in the whole body but only in the area of application. The CBD never enters your bloodstream, instead, it interacts with the endocannabinoid receptors that are near the area of application.
Because of the evidential ability of CBD to combat pain, topical CBD creams are one of the best ways of getting relief from chronic localized pain.
- CBD Vape
Vaping CBD oil remains the most popular method of CBD consumption in the list. Vaporization has its own set of benefits which are unique to this method of absorption.
CBD oil is usually packed in an oil vaporizer that can be electronically heated vaporizer pen or an oil cartridge. CBD compounds are absorbed by the lungs upon vaping and therefore they enter the bloodstream.
Vaping acts as fast as sublingual consumption. the effects of CBD are felt almost instantly and more than any other method, with vaporizing, almost 50-60% of CBD is absorbed by the body.
How long does CBD stay in your system and does the method of consumption a factor to determine that?
The correlation between your method of consuming CBD and how long it stays in your system is huge. If the onset of the effect is quicker, it means that the method of consumption is processed by your body quicker and will leave your body sooner. This concludes that CBD through edibles will last longer in your system than vaporizing or sublingual administration.
Will CBD show up on a drug test?
It all depends on how your CBD is processed and from what plants. We have established earlier that hemp plants containing more than trace amounts of THC are not advised. CBD alone won’t make you fail a drug test.
However, if your CBD is full-spectrum or if it’s sourced from a cannabis plant that’s high on THC, you might fail the drug test.
This is the reason why product labels are essential to avoid failing a drug test. We would recommend to source your CBD from reputed stores both online and offline. Select the best CBD isolate making sure that it doesn’t contain any other cannabis chemicals, especially THC.
