How long do opioids stay in your system? If you’re asking this question, you may already be addicted. Oxy, Percocet, heroin and fentanyl are potent substances, and it’s easy to become dependent inadvertently. It’s vital to catch addiction early because the consequences are eventually fatal. Call 855-678-3144 and speak with one of our client advocates. They’ll verify your insurance benefits and get you on the path to recovery. Read more about how to prevent opioid abuse here.

Opioid Half-Life

The half-life of a drug is the time it takes for a drug’s active substance in your body to decrease by half, and it depends on how the body processes and eliminates the drug. Generally speaking, five half-lives is enough time to remove a drug from the body. The amount of time that opioids stay in your system depends on which version of the chemical you’re ingesting, how you ingest it, metabolic factors, and a host of other considerations. The short answer is that opioids may be detected in blood, saliva, and urine for as long as three months. For hair tests, it can be considerably longer.

Some opioids or opiates have a relatively short half-life. Hydrocodone (Vicodin) and Oxycodone (OxyContin) have short half-lives. Half of the drug consumed passes through the urine in three to five hours. On the other hand, methadone has a long half-life of 24 to 36 hours before it leaves the body. Fentanyl, one of the leading causes of opioid overdoses, has a half-life of four hours. All opioids require many half-lives to leave the body completely.

 

How Long Do Opioids Stay in Your System?

Once the opioid reaches the brain, the chemicals bind opioid receptors and affect the transmission of pain signals and system and induce the feeling of being “high.” The amount of time opiates can stay in the human body is depends on the drug used, how it was administered, a person’s metabolism, age, weight, and sex.

Baked goods containing poppy seeds can also cause positive drug test results. If vast amounts are consumed, morphine concentrations of 2000 ng/mL for a period of 6 to 12 hours may be present in urine. Because the seeds are first metabolized in the stomach, eating even pounds of poppy seeds will not produce a high.

Factors Affecting How Long Opioids Show Up in Drug Tests

• How often the drug Used
• How much of opioid is used
• Method of delivery administration
• General health
• Metabolism
• Age
• Sex
• Weight

Metabolizing Opioids

Your liver, kidneys, enzymes, and a few other organs play a primary role in metabolizing opioids. When taken orally, the opioids or opiates began to break down in the stomach and the liver via the intestines. When injected, the drug doesn’t undergo the first phase. The metabolites created in this process are what drug tests look for. For example, Oxycodone produces oxymorphone, Heroin metabolism yields morphine, and both morphine and Hydrocodone create oxymorphone.

One of the most important factors in how long an opioid will say in your system is how fast your body metabolizes it. If a person had an underlying medical condition, it could take longer than the average person. For example, kidney disease dramatically increases the time it will remain datable in urine or blood. If a person consumes a lot of water and exercises, they will metabolize much faster than a person with a sedentary lifestyle.

Bottom Line: How Long Do Opioids Stay in Your System?

Many reasons exist for why a person would be tested for opioid use. Probation and parole officers often drug test their clients, and doctors may want to know as well. Whatever your reason, your hair, blood, and urine may be taken as a sample. Generally, Opioids can be detected in urine and blood within hours. It will show up in saliva samples within two to three days. Hair tests are a real wildcard. It entirely depends on the length of your hair and how long you’ve been using opioids. But older, overweight, less healthy individuals will test positive longer than their fit counterparts. People with a more extended use history will test positive for longer, as will people with people who use higher doses.

Specific opioids also play a part in detectably. Vicodin doesn’t show in saliva tests for 12 hours. Morphine and codeine are only detectable in blood up to 12 hours after use. Saliva tests can detect methadone for ten days, unlike most other opioids and in UAs for 6 to 12 days.

What’s the Best Way to Pass a Drug Test?

Don’t use opioids. That’s much easier said than done. They’re some of the most addictive substances on the planet. You may not think they’ll end your life, but they always enviably do. When was the last time you heard a story about an 80-year-old heroin user? You haven’t because he died in his 20s. There are two paths for opioid addiction. Quit using and recover or die.

If you want to get past opioid addiction, reach out to us at AspenRidge Recovery. We offer several programs with many different levels of care. We have extensive experience treating opioid dependence, and several members of our staff are also in recovery from opioid use disorder. Call us at 855-678-3144 and begin your new life!