How long will a chemical/drug clears out from the body?

[Battousai1]

Hi sorry to ask this question, I was just wondering how long will a chemical/drug clears out or be totally eliminated from the body? I am referring to medicines that are taken orally. I have read that it usually takes five half-lives of a drug before it gets eliminated out of the the body, is this true? but what if somebody is taking the drug for long periods like months is the computation of five half-lives for each dose taken still applies?

[Shoreguy]

it varies on the drug, your body, the amount injested, how often, blah blah. Everyone's slightly different and every drug lingers for a varying amount. the best way to ensure you're clean is to never do.
Drugs are bad (http://youtube.com/watch?v=9-AfOhyn_S4)

[Steve R Jones]

What does "five half-lives" mean?

Ditto what Shoreguy said...

Pot for example can stay in your system for up to a week. Cocaine will be gone in a much shorter time. Drugs like pot get absorbed into fatty tissue and hand around longer.

[porsch1909]

Drink lots of water before the drug test and don't pee until you are told too.

Pot can stay in your hair for months.

[Battousai1]

Thanks for the replies. I was quite surprised as the replies assumed the drugs I was talking about are illegal drugs, actually the drugs/medicine I was talking about are legal prescription drugs. But again thanks for the replies, those were interesting and I learned some new things like hair samples can contain traces of drugs.

[porsch1909]

One normally doesn't care about precribed drugs in their body :)

[Battousai1]

One normally doesn't care about precribed drugs in their body :)

Actually yes but some people who knows some things about medicines like half-lives will care specially when they are in the stage of stopping the medicine and or switching to other medicine or for those people who really don't like to have drugs in their body.

[porsch1909]

Most people ask their doctor or are advised by a doctor if they are switching medicines. I dunno....a tech forum isn't the first place for me to go and ask.

People who don't like to have drugs in their bodies usually don't take them :)

[Baddog]

Fingernail Drug Test Facts

Fingernails, like hair, are made of the protein keratin and are tested with the same process. The method of screening for drug use in a fingernail test is the five panel, Enzyme Multiple Immunoassay Test (EMIT). The fingernail is put in a chemical solution to rid the nail of external contaminants and is then liquified.

Five drugs are tested for with the qualitative detection of cocaine, amphetamines / methamphetamines (ecstasy), opiates (heroin, morphin),pcp (angels dust,hog) and tetrahydrocannabinol (marijuana, hashish) drug testing in urine. The cutoff levels of the test for cocaine (COC) is 300 ng/ml, methamphetamine (METH) is 1000 ng/ml, opium (OPI) is 300 ng/ml, phencyclidine (PCP) is 25 ng/ml and marijuana (THC) is 50 ng/ml.

Results of a fingernail sample will represent drug use that is approximately 4-5 months from the time of ingestion. Fingernails can be clipped, or, if length does not allow, can be shaved in a safe and pain-free sample collection.

http://www.ipassedmydrugtest.com/fingernail_drug_test.asp :eek: :t