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M$14 May 01, 2009 11:50 PM

How long does it take (in amt of hrs) for a small trace of cocaine to turn up in your system in a urine test?

For some background on the situation, I will provide the details. A "friend" was using cocaine at 11:30PM. The amount was less than a gram. The "friend" was then pulled over and taken in around 3AM. A urine test was performed at the police station and sent to a lab; prior to the urine test, plenty of fluids and food were in the body. The question is, what is the amount of time it takes for any trace of the drug to even show up in that type of test. Medical/Toxicology and Legal professionals may be the only ones that may be able to accurately answer this question. Thanks!
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May 02, 2009 12:32 AM
This depends slightly on the exact amount and the method that your friend took the drug.

Insufflation (sniffing) and injection are the two most popular ways to get cocaine in. Injection supplies the drug directly to the blood stream and is considered the most effective way of taking the drug. Insufflation relies on absorption through the mucus membranes of the nose and as a result is slightly less effective.

So, the "small amount" of coke may not raise any red flags if it was sniffed. However, this would have to be a very small amount because mucus membranes can effectively carry substances to the blood stream.

http://www.cocaine.org/cokestrut.html reports that Cocaine can be detected for about 2-4 days. However, you're concerned with the how quickly the drug can be identified in your system. If your friend took the drug at 11pm, 3pm would be more then enough time. While Injection increases the rate of absorption into your system, insufflation still takes far less than 4 hours for the drug to pass into your system.

Most people feel the effects of Cocaine within minutes meaning that it has penetrated into the system and while the high dissolves in about 20 minutes, traces of the drug can be found in your system for up to 4 days, or longer depending on the type of drug test performed.

http://www.camh.net/About_Addiction_Mental_Health/Drug_and_Addiction_Information/cocaine_dyk.html

So, your friend is pooched. The test will in all likelihood come back positive.

However, there are various legal tactics that can be used. It would likely be a very good idea to find a good lawyer for your friend. The cops tend to take this sort of thing pretty seriously and without challenge, it will be black and white.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine

http://www.cocaine.org/cokestrut.html

http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/2/6/1/0/p1261...


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May 02, 2009 02:04 AM
Rob, you said, "If your friend took the drug at 11pm, 3pm would be more then enough time." The question actually said 3AM instead of 3PM, which would make a huge difference in this situation.

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May 02, 2009 09:45 AM
Thanks for the catch, Demanda.

It was a simple transposition mistake. I meant 3am. I did reference "4 hours" and that is correct.

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May 02, 2009 10:18 AM - New Source
Just to be sure that I had the absolute correct answer, I went back, reviewed my sources and found a few more to provide further support.

From Wikipedia (already sourced above):
"Benzoylecgonine can be detected in urine within four hours after cocaine inhalation"

Other sources of backup:
http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?id=8086

http://www.biomedexperts.com/Abstract.bme/12422991/Urinary_elimination_of_cocaine_metabolites_in_chronic_cocaine_users_during_cessation

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_Detection_times_for_cocaine_in_urine_tests

As a quick aside: Make sure that your friends lawyer has specific experience winning Cocaine related cases. In a couple of the articles that I've found it sounds like a Urine test does not test for the Cocaine molecule itself but rather the other things that are found with it. It sounds like there would be a defense in there somewhere.

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May 02, 2009 02:02 AM
According to several sources I've found, the amount of time it will take cocaine to show up in a urinalysis is highly dependent on an individual's weight and metabolic rate.

Just as with alcohol and other drugs, a smaller and lighter individual will have a higher detectable drug content in a shorter amount of time than a bigger person.

It is important to note that in a urinalysis for cocaine, the chemical being tested for is called benzoylecgonine, which is excreted in the urine after cocaine usage.

According to the October 2007 issue of The Journal of Analytical Toxicology which studied six individuals who smoked 40mg of cocaine each, the maximum urinary concentrations for benzoylecgonine was detected at an average of 6.6 hours after usage. It continued to be detectable up to 164 hours after usage. Depending on the test subject's size and metabolic rates, the time it took for the drug to be detectable varied from around 4 hours to 7 hours.

Conclusion:
Your friend is in a very narrow time frame for detection. If they happen to be a bigger individual, it's less likely that the chemical tested for will be detectable in the urine in 3.5 hours. However, if not, the opposite is true. They are right on the cusp so it really all comes down to their size and metabolic rate.
Source(s):
http://www.jatox.com/abstracts/2007/october/462-huestis.html
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/165716-overview
http://www.urban75.com/Drugs/drugcoke.html


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May 02, 2009 08:40 AM
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/07/article-1083596-0262BA94000005DC-343_468x368.jpg

Cocaine may stay in your system quite a while as it depends on various factors. If you exercise and drink water it may help. Keep in mind if you drink too much water, the Creatinine levels will be high and that will show up on the drug test.

But what you really want to know is how "soon" before it shows up in a urine test... Well, there is a lot of info out there which says that cocaine is out of your system in 2-3 days. While that might be true, what's also true is that you don't get tested for the drug itself - what you get tested for is the metabolite.

Metabolites are something that the body produces when it ingests something, and in the case of cocaine this is "benzoylecgonine". This metabolite can stay around long after the drug has left the system, up to 30 days for a frequent user. Cocaine itself can stay in your bloodstream up to 72 hours and in your urine for about 1 to 3 days after single use. Habitual or chronic use can be detected in urine for up to 12 weeks depending on quantity, duration, and frequency of use.

According to http://www.druglibrary.org/SCHAFFER/cocaine/clearurine.htm

"First, cocaine itself is metabolized too rapidly to be measured for routine screening. When urine is being screened for the presence of cocaine, it is actually benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, that is being measured.

Second, as to how long it will take for this metabolite to be eliminated from the urine, in some cases the answer may be longer than traditionally thought. Several studies suggest that benzoylecgonine can be detected in the urine of chronic, highdose abusers for longer periods of time than originally expected. A urine level of 300 nanograms per milliliter (or 300 micrograms per liter) of benzoylecgonine is considered a positive result for cocaine use. However, these levels can vary in the same individual depending on when the test is done. For example, first void of the day samples will yield the highest concentrations of drug metabolites. Testing urine at other times of the day will yield differing results, just as the concentration of urine itself changes throughout the day.

http://whyiswhoiswhatare.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/how-long-does-cocaine-stay-in-your-system-300x214.jpg

The widely accepted time period for benzoylecgonine to be cleared from the urine is three to five days. One study suggests that high dose users (i.e., 0.5 gram or greater for each episode of use) can test positive after eight days. Another study claims that benzoylecgonine can be detected in heavy cocaine users for 10-14 days. The longest time over which positive urine levels of benzoylecgonine were detected was 10-22 days. This was after chronic use of extremely high doses of 112 grams per week. Since it is usually difficult to determine exactly how much cocaine is being abused, it seems that a broader range of potential detection times should be given when explaining cocaine metabolism in regard to urine testing."

So, apart from the above-mentioned points in other answers, ie. whether it was sniffed/injected, the quantity used and the duration, the weight of the person, their metabolic activity, etc. I believe that even the usage pattern has to be taken into account. In this case, you haven't mentioned if your "friend" is a chronic user, which is probably the most important factor in this case!


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May 02, 2009 09:43 AM
well i have a limited well of knowledge but i would think it depends on how the drug was administered. however, being 3 1/2 hours i think it would definetly show up in a urine test regardless of how it was taken. i hear that the urine test accuracy is second only to hair samples. so good luck with that

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May 04, 2009 11:24 PM
Short answer: 0-4 hours. Your friend is likely boned. Assuming he wasn't on parole, he probably could have refused to take the test and he should consider consulting a lawyer.

Long answer: Cocaine would be detectible in urine several minutes after it enters the blood stream (assuming healthy kidneys). Depending on the test used, it may not meet the detection threshold and it may not be tested for at all. The metabolite commonly tested for is benzoylecgonine. This should also get into the bladder pretty quickly, but metabolism varies widely by individual and it may take hours to reach the detection threshold. Craig Medical, which specializes in drug test kits, advertises a minimum detection period of 1-4 hours for benzoylecgonine.
Source(s):
http://www.craigmedical.com/drug_test_faq.htm#Q:%20In%20general,%20what%20a...


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