How long does drinking marijuana tea stay in your system?

Answer 1

If you are impatient for the quick and dirty answer, scroll down to the 'Too Long, Didn't Read' (TLDR) part.

The easy answer is anywhere from 10-45 days.

The hard answer is that it will depend on a number of factors ranging from how much you weigh and how physically active you are, to how much tea you drank, how strong it was, and how often you've drank it... But the good news is you can pretty easily figure out a rough guess.

------ Quick Background ------

Basically, when you put anything in your body, your body tries to make it useful by breaking it down and metabolizing it for energy. In the case of 99% of drugs, once the chemical is broken down and metabolized it is no longer 'active' in the body and no longer has an effect... Because (sane) people dont go to drug tests while high, drug tests don't look for the actual 'active' drug chemical... instead they look for the inert chemicals that the body turns the drugs into! These are called metabolites.

------ End Background ------

In the special case of THC, the converted metabolites are easily stored in fat cells instead of simply being excreted with all other waste products the body generates. So unlike the metabolites of most other drugs which are out of your system in just a few days, the THC metabolites stick around for much much longer.

As far as tea vs smoking vs eating vs vaporizing, the method of consumption doesn't matter. What matters is the amount of THC you get.. For instance, making a light tea out of 2 grams of cheap crap weed might not yield as much THC (ie. get you as high) as 1/4 a gram of high quality dank smoked out of a bowl. So in this example the bowl would stay in your system longer than the tea. (However, yes, when people make MJ into a tea or food they usually make it with more MJ than you would probably want to sit and smoke in one sitting; so edibles (food/tea) are generally going to be stronger (and therefore last longer in your system) than a bowl or joint... But again this is only because you are taking in more THC.) (Example2: If you drank a tea in one day made from 2 grams of MJ or smoked 2 grams of the same MJ in one day, sure the high and effects will be quite different, but you would be consuming the same amount of THC (and therefore building up the same amount of THC metabolites) in either case. Thus both methods of consumption would take the same amount of time to leave the body.) I added this paragraph because you specifically asked about tea, and I just wanted to point out that since the method of consumption is irrelevant, this answer applies to all "How long will MJ stay in my system?" questions. Just for anybody else who runs across this in the future :)

---- FINALLY THE ANSWER ----

For a 'standard', in-shape, physically active guy (let's say 6ft, 160lbs), who never uses MJ but maybe took a hit or two off a joint or something one night- would most likely take 3-5 days to get it out of his system.. certainly would be fine by 7 days.

Now if you change any one of those variables (weight, physical activity level, amount of MJ used, and frequency of use), you're looking at (very roughly) another 7 days to get it out of your system for each variable changed... IE. If you are NOT physically active, add 7 days.. If you are overweight, add 7 days.. If you had more than 1 bowl/joint's worth of MJ, probably add 7 days.. and ESPECIALLY if you still have THC metabolites in your system from previous times you've used MJ, add 7 more days (this is probably the most important because of how long THC metabolites stay in the fat cells, so every time you use MJ you are adding to the amount of metabolites stored in the cells, and thus increasing the time it will take for those cells to flush themselves clean. (If you are a heavy/daily user for a solid month or two, and you are in-shape and physically active, it would still take at least 30-40 days to 100% clear out of your system because of all the built up metabolites... If you are a heavy/daily user AND are overweight AND not physically active, you're probably looking at around 60+ days to be 100% clean.

----- TLDR -----

tl;dr - It doesn't matter what method you use to get high from MJ (tea, smoking, eating, whatever)... it will not have a significant impact on how long it takes the THC metabolites to leave your system.. There are only 2 things that really matter: 1) The quantity of metabolites you build up in your system (More frequent use or higher quality MJ = more THC in the body = more THC metabolized and then stored in fat cells = more time to flush it all out)... And 2) how efficient your body is at expelling those built up metabolites hanging out in your fat cells... So skinny people will get rid of it faster than people with more fat cells for it to be stored in, and active people will also burn and flush out these fat cells much more efficiently than somebody who sits on the couch all day.

The averagely quoted figure is usually around the 30 day mark. But again is tremendously subject to your personal situation, so 10-45 days is about all anybody can say without knowing more info... and even then it isn't an exact science whatsoever... If you have something important you need to do a drug test for, error on the side of caution and allow more time than you would think for it to leave your system... If you have a drug test coming up, it's probably too late to 'allow more time than you would think' to get in the clear; but adding extra exercise to your day and drinking PLENTY of water to help your body flush out your cells can make a very HUGE difference!!! Tons of exercise and water can probably cut in half the amount of time you would normally need to get clean... whether that's 10 days cut down to 5, or 70 days cut down to 35 is up to your body and how much you try.

----- Extra Infos -----

(There are also a number of methods/tips/products for helping 'dirty' people pass a drug test.. There are WAAAYY too many things to mention here that you could try.. None of them are 100% effective but some are more effective than others.. I recommend a multi-pronged approach using a number of different methods, but in general it goes like this: 1) Stop smoking ASAP after you figure out you're going to have a drug test (duh) 2) exercise and drink lots of water every day (the most effective and also completely free), and then 3) the internet is great for methods/tips to help final flush your body on the day before and the day OF the test...

If you are super desperate you can also try some whacky stuff like over-the-counter 'detox' kits (or make one yourself, they basically consist of Gatoraid and B vitamins), or even go so far as to buy 'clean' powdered urine off the internet.. Just don't fall for anything that you are supposed to add to your 'dirty' urine to try and trick the test into thinking it's clean or somehow mess with the result. Way back in the day there was a rumor that adding a drop of Visine or bleach or something like that to your urine cup would mess up the test.. I don't know if that was true or not, but I do know that tests these days check for added chemicals and change color if it is adulterated/tampered with. They also have a temperature range and if your urine is not between like 92-98 degrees(F) it will fail. So if you're gonna try something crazy, just remember that anything that isn't 100% natural human urine, warmed to body temperature, will probably get you busted.)

Answer 2

Not long enough. Upgrade to weed.