How Long Does Cocaine Stay in Your System?
Maybe you’re concerned about testing positive on an upcoming drug screen. Maybe you just want to know when the drug will be out of your body. Whatever your reason for wanting to know how long does cocaine stay in your system, this post has the answers you need.
Cocaine and the Body
Cocaine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that typically appears as a white powder or small crystalline rocks.
When you use this drug in any form, it causes a buildup of dopamine throughout the CNS. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in functions such as reward, mood, and motivation.
Cocaine’s ability to elevate your dopamine levels is responsible for effects such as:
- Improve mood
- Boost of energy
- Talkativeness
- Increased self-confidence
- Greater sensitivity to external stimuli
These effects are typically short-lived, which often prompts people to use cocaine multiple times within a short period.
There’s no such thing as risk-free cocaine use. Every time you ingest the drug, you expose yourself to outcomes such as:
- Severe abdominal pain
- Nausea
- Abnormal heart rate
- Heart attack
- Seizure
- Stroke
As the amount and frequency of your cocaine use increases, so does your risk of these and other effects.
The best way to avoid cocaine-related damage is to keep the drug out of our body. But what happens if you’ve already ingested it? How long does cocaine stay in your system?
How Long is Cocaine in Your System?
Cocaine has a half-life of about 1.5 to four hours. A half-life is the amount of time it takes for your body to eliminate half of a substance from your system.
It usually takes four to five half-lives for a substance to fall below a clinically significant level, which means that the drug should be out of your system in less than 24 hours after your last dose.
However, as you will notice in the following few sections, the length of time that cocaine can be detected in your system may vary depending on the type of test you take. Thus, the answer to how long does cocaine stay in your pee can be different than the answer to how long does cocaine stay in your blood or how long does cocaine stay in your hair.
There are two general reasons for these differences:
- Cocaine remains in different parts of your body for different lengths of time. For example, even after it’s been eliminated from your blood and saliva, remnants will still be present in your urine.
- Drug tests don’t only detect cocaine. They also look for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite that your body produces as it breaks down cocaine molecules and prepares them for elimination. Having benzoylecgonine in your system is proof that you used recently used cocaine, even if all the cocaine itself has been eliminated.
So let’s divide the question of how long does cocaine stay in your system into separate queries depending on what’s being tested.
How Long Does Cocaine Stay in Urine?
If you are taking a drug screen for employment-related purposes, you will probably be taking a urine test.
Cocaine or the metabolite benzoylecgonine can usually be detected for up to 96 hours (or four days) after your most recent cocaine use.
How Long Does Cocaine Stay in Your Blood
Since your blood interacts with every organ in your body, you might expect that it would retain traces of cocaine for much longer than other fluids. This is not the case.
How long does cocaine stay in your bloodstream? You will usually test positive for cocaine on a blood test for no more than 48 hours after your last exposure to the drug.
How Long Does Cocaine Stay in Hair?
The answer to how long does cocaine stay in your hair can be quite surprising to some people.
Unlike the various body fluid tests, which usually can’t find evidence of cocaine use after about four days that the most, a hair follicle test may detect cocaine for up to 90 days after the last time you used the drug.
How Long Does Cocaine Stay in Saliva?
The answer to how long does cocaine stay in saliva is the same as how long it stays in your blood: about 48 hours.
How Long Does Cocaine Stay In Breast Milk?
Knowing how long does cocaine stay in breast milk can be extremely important.
Exposure to cocaine in utero can be harmful to fetal development. But the risk of incurring cocaine-related damage doesn’t end at birth, as it’s possible for the drug to enter an infant’s system through breast milk.
You shouldn’t use cocaine or any other addictive substances while breastfeeding. But if you’re unable to stop using cocaine completely, most experts advise waiting at least 24 hours after you’ve used the drug before you breastfeed your child again.
How to Get Cocaine Out of Your System
As we noted earlier in this post, if your organs are functioning properly, it usually takes about 24 to eliminate cocaine from your system. There’s no way to hurry this process or to cut down the amount of time that benzoylecgonine remains in your system.
In other words, the only way to get cocaine out of your system is to wait.
If you’ve only used cocaine a few times, getting it out of your system shouldn’t be much of a problem. But if you’ve become addicted to the drug, this process may trigger withdrawal symptoms.
The symptoms of cocaine withdrawal aren’t usually as painful as what you would experience if you were withdrawing from opioids, benzodiazepines, or alcohol. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, though. For some people, cocaine withdrawal symptoms can include depression, anxiety, paranoia, an unrelenting sense of despair, and suicidal ideation
If you have been unable to get through withdrawal on your own, you may benefit from starting treatment in a detoxification (detox) program.
Contact Us About Safely Detoxing From Cocaine
If you need help getting through cocaine withdrawal, Sanctuary Treatment Center is here to help.
When you choose our detox center in Los Angeles, California, you will be under the care of a team of professionals who can keep you safe and as comfortable as possible.
Once your withdrawal symptoms have subsided, you can transfer directly into our inpatient rehab or outpatient program, where you can begin to build a foundation for successful, long-term recovery. To learn more or to schedule a free assessment, please visit our Contact page or call us today.
Published: 11/19/2024
