# Drugs in your system last how long ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-your-system-last-how-long/208885>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 22, 2003, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-your-system-last-how-long/208885 "2003-10-22T12:00:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-your-system-last-how-long/208885/21 "2003-10-23T19:52:52Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Moe \*  
> \*\* I’m wondering if simply the amount of water from the tea I ingested was able to dilute the urine to the point where toxins couldn’t be detected? and perhaps it had nothing to do with the tea at all? especially since the tea IIRC claimes that it loses its effectiveness a few hours later.  
> \*\*

That’s doubtless the mechanism.

Some assays do indeed test for the urine “detoxifying” agents. And a positive test for such an agent is considered the same as a positive test for a drug, from a job eligibility and reporting standpoint.

Lotsa things cause false positives, but if a test is positive for something, it ought to be confirmed by better and better assay techniques, until the chance of a false positive is very, very, very remote. Gas chromatography doesn’t leave much room for false positives, and mass spectrophotometry is the gold standard.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-your-system-last-how-long/208885/22 "2003-10-23T21:22:40Z")

</div>

Wow if your using a spectrometer to analyze employee pee you certainly are a suspicious boss. (yep the ryhme was intentional.) 🙂

So tell us who actually uses drug tests in the US ? I personally have never been submitted to one.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![akrako1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@akrako1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akrako1)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-your-system-last-how-long/208885/23 "2003-10-23T21:41:53Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Rashak Mani \*  
> \*\*So tell us who actually uses drug tests in the US ? I personally have never been submitted to one. \*\*

Have you ever tried working for a corporation? Nearly all test now. As do nearly all government jobs…  
BTW, as far as LSD is concerned. I’ve heard that you can’t detect it in your system even when your tripping your ass off (just ignore the pupils as big as your head…) Think of a few micrograms dissolved in your whole body as undetectable.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GawnFishin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@GawnFishin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GawnFishin)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-your-system-last-how-long/208885/24 "2003-10-24T20:39:52Z")

</div>

Didn’t someone recently demonstrate how to fail a drug test simply by eating poppy seed bagels. Also I think Cecil had something to say about this [also](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_116.html).

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-your-system-last-how-long/208885.md?page=1)