In general, what are the drug detection periods for the most abused drugs and how long after use can a drug test detect drug presence?
Drug of abuse testing by blood, urine, saliva or any other method (except forensic hair analysis) is designed only to detect whether or not a specific drug or drug metabolite is present at the time the test is performed. While there are very broad estimates as to how long a particular drug may have been in the system, no drug test, regardless of method, is intended to include a time variable. Many factors unique to the individual being tested determine the actual half-life of the particular drug including such variables as age, weight, body fat index, sex, metabolic rate, overall health and amount of drug consumed over what period of time. Therefore, no conclusions can be drawn as to when a particular drug was taken or how much was consumed with any type of drug of abuse test.The following chart illustrates typical drug detection periods. For reasons noted, the range stated is necessarily broad. Generally however, chronic use of high potency drugs by individuals with a high body fat co
