How long does Cocaine show up on a drug test?
To better understand how Cocaine influences our system and how long does cocaine stay in urine we need to get to know what Cocaine is. Cocaine is a powerful and highly addictive drug made from Coca leaves. This plant is native to South America, and the drug has originated from this region as well.
Although it can be used for medicinal purposes such as local anesthesia, recreational use is illegal. Due to its high addictiveness it is hard to clear out of a system once the addiction has been allowed to expand. Cocaine is mostly sold on the street in the form of a white powder. Due to the drug being illegal there are little to no regulations on how it should be created,
Street sellers often mix the drug with cornstarch to increase profits as well as with other highly addictive drugs, such as fentanyl. People who use Cocaine often consume it in binges, ever increasing doses in a short amount of time in order to maintain their high. Cocaine is most often snorted or rubbed on gums in a person’s mouth.
How does Cocaine affect the brain?
Increasing your residual dopamine levels is one way it affects your brain. It targets specific parts of your brain related to movement and mood. Dopamine is usually recycled once it has finished its assigned duty. With Cocaine the recycling process is terminated which in turn leads to a buildup of dopamine in the brain.
Short term effects of Cocaine may include extreme happiness followed by high energy. Heightened mental alertness as well as unique hypersensitivity to sight, sound, taste and other basic receptors. Cocaine also produces high irritability leading to further problems such as paranoia.
Dangers of Cocaine
Depending on the manner of injection Cocaine can cause some terrible after effects that can seriously harm your health. Snorting Cocaine will lead to loss of smell, nosebleeds and incisive troubles with swallowing. These effects might not sound too terrible however they all impair your health and lower your resistance to sickness.
Smoking Cocaine can cause a raspy cough followed with asthma and other high risk respiratory ailments. Cocaine is also known to increase the risk of pneumonia. Consuming the drug through the mouth will lead to reduced blood flow to the mouth as well as severe bowel decay which will cause great discomfort.
Injecting Cocaine through a needle can make the taker contract HIV, hepatitis C as well as other blood borne diseases. It is important to note that contracting HIV is not only a side effect of injections. Cocaine can lead to impaired judgement, which can lead to promiscuous behaviour with louvered standards.
Cocaine drug test
There are several types of drug testing equipment that test for cocaine, most do the job quite well. However, the best manner of testing is through specific cocaine drug test strips which are specialised for one drug. In this case the drug in question is Cocaine. In order to understand how the drug tests work we need to learn how long does Cocaine show up in your urine, or in your system in general.
After you have used Cocaine it will show up on tests for at least 3 days. This timeframe is subject to change due to several factors influencing the drug’s activity in your body. Heavy Cocaine users will have traces of the drug in their urine even after two weeks of abstinence. Which means the drug will take some time to metabolise.
The half life of Cocaine is about an hour and a half, meaning that it takes that long for a half dose to be metabolized in your body. This however does not mean that the drug will no longer show up on drug testing. The most reliable and most used method of testing is through a urine sample.
Factors that influence a Cocaine urine drug test
There are several factors that can influence how long Cocaine will stay in urine. These factors also influence how long it will take your body to clear up after taking Cocaine. It is worthwhile to mention again just how dangerous this drug is. It’s high addictiveness can “hook” a person quickly and then the spiral starts.
The factors that show just how long does Cocaine stay in urine are:
- Height and weight – A person’s weight and height can influence how quick your system will metabolize, as drugs usually connect to bodily fat.
- Activity levels – The more active you are in everyday life the better chances you will have to metabolize drugs. This is because this builds up a person’s metabolism pre hand.
- Metabolism – Having a healthy and strong metabolism means you clear up your system quicker.
- Body mass index – The more body mass you have the more likely it is you will have body fat stored, this in turn makes it longer to metabolize drugs.
Other factors that will most likely influence drug metabolization are:
- Age – Elderly people usually move less and have much larger amounts of body fat which in turn increases the timeframe of drug metabolizing.
- Kidney Function – Kidneys and the liver play an important part in metabolizing any sort of opiate, it is the same with Morphine.
- Drug formulation – different drugs metabolize differently, some take more and some less time to clear out of your system.
- Drug intake – The greater the amount of drug you intake the harder it will be to metabolize. The frequency of intake also increases the time in which the drug is metabolised.
Getting help
As mentioned before, Cocaine is a dangerous and highly addictive drug, its use can end in overdose and severe health hazards. On top of that, recreational use of Cocaine is illegal in most countries in the world. Other than medical issues there are a slew of other issues connected to this drug.
If you are interested in getting help, if you have found yourself addicted to Cocaine or any other highly addictive drug such as this. We advise that you speak to a medical professional and start the healing process. If you have taken Cocaine and want to see if you still have it in your system there are quality cocaine drug tests for personal use that you can buy.
If you know of someone selling this dangerous drug on the street feel free to contact your local law enforcement.
