How Long Does CBD Stay in Your System? [Beginner’s Guide]

CBD can stay in your system for hours, days, weeks, or even months — it all depends on various factors, specifically how much you use and what type of CBD you consume.

CBD’s half-life allows it to stay in your system for between one hour and up to five days — this means your body eliminates half of the CBD you consume in this time. Generally, your body will eliminate all of the CBD within four to five times its half-life.

In addition, the way you consume CBD affects its half-life. For example, CBD drops and sprays have a half-life between two and eleven hours, oral products have a half-life of two to five days, and smokable CBD has a half-life of up to 31 hours.

So these CBD products can stay in your system for two days, 10-25 days, and about a week, respectively.

Want to learn more about CBD, its benefits, and how it affects your body? Stop by our learning center!

What Factors Affect How Long CBD Will Stay in Your System?

Many factors affect how long it takes your body to get rid of CBD — we’ll cover the top five:

How and What You Eat

What you eat — and how much of it you eat — significantly impacts how your body processes substances like CBD. For example, after eating a high-fat meal, you’ll have higher levels of CBD in your bloodstream, making its half-life longer than if you used CBD while fasting.

So if you consume CBD without eating first, it’s likely to leave your system faster than if you eat high-fat foods, which significantly increases its absorption.

What Other Medications You Take

If you have other medications in your system, they can impact how long CBD stays in your body. Because the liver metabolizes CBD, people who take medications that are also metabolized by the liver can have an altered metabolism of CBD. In addition, people with liver disease can have the same issues.

This altered metabolism occurs because these medications and conditions can cause your liver to metabolize substances faster or slower than usual, leading to potentially adverse reactions.

How Often You Take It

CBD is a substance that takes time to build up in your body, meaning you should try it for a week or so before deciding if it works for you. And if you only use CBD occasionally, it will leave your system faster than if you use it regularly.

CBD builds up this way because it is highly soluble in fat; it builds up in our fatty tissues over time after heavy use, remaining in our systems for prolonged periods. This period can be weeks or longer for heavy and regular users.

How Much You Consume

As you might think, the more CBD you take at a time, the longer it will stay in your system. For example, one study found that 1.35 milligrams of CBD would only stay in your system for about six hours, but higher doses would stay for much longer periods.

So, like most other substances, CBD will stay in your system longer if you consume high doses compared to those who consume lower doses.

What Administration Method You Use

The way you consume CBD also has a significant impact on how long the substance stays in your system. For example, smoking or vaping CBD causes it to enter your bloodstream faster, but it will also leave your body quicker.

Meanwhile, CBD oil can stay in your system even longer — two to five days.

However, your frequency of use still makes more of a difference than how you use CBD. For chronic CBD users, the substance accumulates in their fat tissue, which releases the CBD back into their bodies slowly over time.

CBD edibles are metabolized by your digestive system, which can take a while. Edibles and topicals, like CBD creams and lotions, take longer to get into your system, but they also stay for longer.

How Long Until the CBD Takes Effect?

How long it will take you to feel the effects of CBD largely depends on the same factors that affect how long the substance stays in your system. The type of CBD you use, your dosage, and your body composition all affect how long it will take for your CBD to kick in, making it challenging to predict how it will affect you or how fast you’ll feel it.

However, when vaping or smoking CBD, you’ll likely feel the effects almost immediately. Oral and sublingual CBD products — like oils and tinctures — will take effect relatively quickly, and topical and edible products can take an hour or two before you feel their effects.

In addition, you can expect CBD’s effects to last anywhere between two and six hours, depending on the factors we discussed above.

Does CBD Show Up on Drug Tests?

CBD by itself shouldn’t show up on drug tests, but many CBD products also may contain trace amounts of THC, which will appear on the results. This substance is the main ingredient in cannabis that makes you feel high.

One exception to this is that occasionally, there are drug tests that lump all cannabinoids together (which includes CBD), and therefore you could test positive.

If you know you’ll be taking a drug test soon and use CBD frequently, you’ll want to consider which products you choose.

Full-spectrum CBD products consist of all of the compounds found in the cannabis plant, like THC — these can make you test positive.

Broad-spectrum CBD products are similar to full-spectrum CBD; however, they go through a specific process that eliminates the THC.

CBD isolate products are pure CBD, making them the safest option if you need to pass a drug test while using CBD — as long as you go through a reputable source, they should contain no THC at all.

Looking for high-quality CBD isolate products that contain no THC and won’t affect drug tests? Find your new favorite CBD gummies, oils, and more here!

Is CBD Legal?

Thanks to the 2018 passing of the Farm Bill, hemp no longer falls under the Controlled Substances Act, making hemp-derived products (like CBD) legal as long as they contain 0.3% or less THC. Any product containing over that amount of THC is still federally illegal and falls under the definition of marijuana.

In addition, each state has different laws regarding hemp products and CBD, so it’s essential to check the laws where you live and in states where you plan to travel.

Still not sure what you want to try? We love to talk about CBD! Contact us by using our chat function while you shop (talk to a real person!), call us at 800.894.9688 or email us at contact@gobotanicals.com. We can't wait to hear from you.