How long does Cocaine stay in the system?
Depending on the last dose, it gets eliminated within 12 hours. But, if taken in heavy doses it may take about 72 hours. However, the drug’s metabolite takes much longer to be flush out in the body.
When cocaine gets metabolize it turns to benzoylecgonine, which commonly used in drug screening test. This metabolite gets excreted from the body through urine. Any traces of it in the urine indicate that the person consumed cocaine. Laboratories test usually test for benzoylecgonine in the urine than for the drug.
Eliminating Cocaine from the body
It is impossible to provide the exact time frame for the body to excrete cocaine from its system. Several factors play an important part in determining how quickly the body can flush cocaine from its system.
Factors affecting the ‘flushing out’ of Cocaine
The approximate time frame for cocaine to get flushed out from the body depends on these several factors:
- How frequent the user take the drug
- How heavy user is
- The individual body weight and height
- How healthy the bodily function like how fast the liver can metabolize the drug and how the kidney will process the drug
The form and amount of cocaine taken
Cocaine comes in various forms and users can snort, smoke, inject and take it orally. The concentration of cocaine in the blood varies on how users take the drug. The drug can enter the bloodstream directly when users inhaled or inject cocaine. Also, the type of cocaine greatly affects how the body will process the drug. In the United States, cocaine sold in black markets is about 60% pure.
Alcohol levels
If users take cocaine along with alcohol it takes even longer time to excrete from the body. Alcohol binds cocaine and remains in the body longer, hindering its excretion. The drug metabolizes and creates cocaethylene and takes about 5 days to eliminate from the body. Even with small amount of cocaine, cocaethylene along with benzoylecgonine will leave the body approximately 4 to 5 days.
Bodily Function
Eliminating cocaine mainly involves the kidney and liver. These two organs metabolize the drug to be excreted from the body via urine and through feces. Flushing out of cocaine from the body depends on the overall health status and how efficient these two can function. If the users still have a healthy liver then the drug can immediately excrete from the body compared to those who have disintegrated organs.
Body weight
Cocaine metabolites tend to stick to the fatty tissues throughout the body. Once the metabolites stick to the fat, it resists excretion. However, the drug is slowly released into the blood stream and will continuously produce certain traces of the drug in the blood. Thinner individuals may have an advantage over this factor.
The user’s lifestyle
Excreting the drug is quicker if the user if physically active and doing regular exercises. Better the metabolic rate the faster for the body to eliminate the drug.
Steps that may aid ‘flushing’ out of cocaine in the body
Getting rid of the drug serves as the most important step in recovering from addiction. Removing all traces of cocaine from the body takes time, from several months up to few years. Even with baby steps like bringing down the level in a threshold can greatly improve your recovery process. Here are some of the steps that may help your body get rid of cocaine.
- As for everything, water is your best tool to get rid of the drug. Drink plenty of water, this will help your kidneys filter your blood and flush out toxins from your body.
- Get yourself involved in physical activities, exercise regularly and as much as possible. If you hate doing routine works, you may want to pick a sport like swimming, running or biking. Anything that will get you active and can help your body excretes the drugs.
- Avoid alcohol at all cost. Alcohol binds cocaine and is difficult to excrete once attached to the body fats. Check the labels as there are products that may contain alcohol as one of their ingredients. Even beverages may be alcohol based, so just stick to water.
- Similarly, avoid any drinks containing caffeine like tea, coffee, and sodas. You may want to pick fruit juices or lemonades. Caffeine will hinder the body in eliminating traces of cocaine.
- Change of lifestyle may mean change of diet as well. Go for healthy options like fruits and vegetables as much as you can. These are nature’s natural detoxifiers, as they prevent the drug from sticking to the body fats.
Anyone who wants to recover from cocaine abuse needs to undergo a ‘detox’ period. Whatever your drug abuse history, you can help your body flush out cocaine from your system. Although the detox time may take years, small steps can help you in the long run.