Heroin is an illicit opioid. It has an addictive quality and a damaging nature. Generally, it’s smoked, snorted, or injected into one’s veins. It brings a fast, euphoric high, followed by sensations of relaxation, contentment, and sleepiness.
The exact time heroin takes to stay in your system depends on:
- Genetics
- Age
- Body fat content
- Metabolism rate
- Hydration
- Quality of the drug
- Liver and kidney health
Everything You Should Know About Heroin Drug Testing
The rate in which heroin leaves the body affects the amount of time the substance is no longer identifiable in several drug tests.
Purpose of Heroin Drug Testing
Heroin drug testing is used to find out the presence of heroin in your system, which you can use for the following:
- Sports organization: professional athletes takes the test for a performance-enhancing drug
- Forensic purposes: it can part of an accident and criminal investigation
- Employment: employers test their employees to determine on-the-job drug use.
Drug Tests for Heroin
The tests that the Food and Drug Administration approves to detect heroin are:
- Saliva drug test
- Hair follicle test
- Urine drug test
- Blood drug test
You can determine heroin traces in the system for an extended period since the last dose due to more advanced tests.
Heroin creates metabolites when the liver metabolizes the drug. The tests look for the metabolites because they can stay in the system for a long time than the exact intoxicant.
Accuracy of The Tests
Most of the time, after just two days, it’s impossible to detect the presence of heroin in a person’s urine.
Particular tests can, however, determine positive results for up to 7days.
This opioid has a short half-life, just like many others; therefore, blood and saliva tests aren’t often used for heroin drug testing. That’s because it can take about 5-6 hours for the drug not to be detectable.
Hair follicle test is the only drug test that works for longer than a week because it can confirm heroin in the system for up to 90 days or even more. There are, however, several factors that can interfere with the hair follicle drug test. It is crucial to acknowledge that heroin in the system is easily detectable on long-term heavy users. That’s because excess heroin is stored in fatty tissues, which takes a long time to flush the substance out in the bloodstream and other body fluids.
Preparation for The Heroin Drug Test
If you’re taking any prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, or supplements, ensure you tell your testing provider because they may give positive results of illicit drugs.
Don’t eat foods with poppy seeds as they can cause positive results for opioids.
Heroin Drug Test Results
If you have negative heroin drug testing results, it indicates that there is no presence of the drug in your body. Positive results mean there is a presence of heroin in your system. However, false positives can occur if you recently ate food with poppy seeds or under medication that contains opioids. You can do a retest to confirm the presence of heroin in your system if you’re not satisfied with the results.
