How Long Does a Dab Really Stay in Your System?

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If you’ve recently done a dab or are considering dabbing, you may have a lot of questions about how dabs differ from regular marijuana. How long does a dab stay in your system? Do dabs show up on a drug test? Do dabs stay in your system longer than other types of marijuana? Is dabbing going to make you fail your drug test?

Luckily, we have answers to all your dabbing questions. In this guide, we explain why taking a dab will effect your body differently than other types of marijuana, discuss the factors that affect how long THC stays in your body, and give you several methods to try if you’ve used marijuana recently and you’re trying to pass an upcoming drug test.

 

What Is a Dab?

If you’re not up-to-date on the lingo, a “dab” is a concentrated dose of cannabis/marijuana. Other names for dabs include wax, earwax, BTO (butane hash oil), shatter, budder, and honeycomb.

Dabbing has exploded in popularity in the last few years, and people are taking dabs because they give a much more concentrated amount of THC than smoking regular marijuana buds does. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive chemical in marijuana that makes you feel high. Regular marijuana buds have a THC content of about 12 to 13 percent, but dabs have a THC content of at least 50 percent and sometimes up to 80 percent.

This means you’ll get a much stronger high from dabbing than you would from smoking regular marijuana. Because the high is so much stronger, you should be careful when dabbing, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with marijuana.

 

Do Dabs Stay in Your System Longer Than Other Forms of THC?

Because dabs contain so much for THC, does that mean the THC stays in your body longer than it does for other types of marijuana? It depends, but usually taking a dab means you’ll have THC in your body slightly longer than if you’d used another form of marijuana.

The form of THC in dabs doesn’t last longer than any other type of THC, like the kind in marijuana buds or a pot brownie. However, because a dab contains so much more THC than other types of marijuana (one dab is at least four times as strong as a joint), it will take longer for the THC to get out of your system compared to smoking regular marijuana buds.

So, it’s not because the marijuana is in a different form that a dab stays in your system longer, it’s because there’s so much THC in a dab it takes longer for it to get out of your system. But do dabs show up on a drug test longer than other types of marijuana? Keep reading to find out.

 

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How Long Do Dabs Stay in Your System?

How long does a dab stay in your system? What about other types of marijuana? If you have a drug test coming up, you’ll likely want to know if you’ll be able to pass it based on when you last used marijuana. Do dabs show up on a drug test? They sure do! Just like other types of marijuana, dabbing can cause you to fail a drug test for THC.

The chart below shows about how long THC (from different forms of marijuana) will show up on three types of drug tests: saliva, urine, and hair. Urine tests are the most common way to test for marijuana and other drugs, so you may want to pay most attention to those numbers.

 

Amount of Time After Using Marijuana It’ll Take to Pass a Drug Test

Saliva Test Urine Test Hair Test
Smoking 1-12 hours 1 to 15+ days 7-90 days
Edible 12-48 hours 2 to 15+ days 7-90 days
Dab 1-48 hours 1 to 15+ days 7-90 days

As you can see, there is a range of time for each result. This is because the length of time THC stays in your system depends on multiple factors, which we discuss more in the next section.

You’ll test clean most quickly with a saliva test. You’ll generally test clean for a saliva test about 12 hours after you smoke marijuana buds or up to two days after consuming edible marijuana or doing a dab. Since edibles pass through your stomach, they are metabolized in the liver first, then enter your bloodstream. This process takes longer than the THC going directly to your bloodstream like it does when you smoke marijuana. As such, it’ll take longer to pass a saliva test if you eat edible marijuana compared to smoking it. The high amount of THC in a dab means it can also take up to two days for you to test clean on a saliva test, even though you inhale the THC just like smoking regular marijuana.

This pattern is also true for urine tests. It’s possible to pass a urine test a day after smoking marijuana or doing a dab, but if you consume an edible it will usually take at least two days. Be aware that this is the minimum amount of time it’ll take to test clean for a urine test, and it’s not uncommon for you to still test dirty two weeks or more after you do marijuana. The chances of this are increased with dabbing since you’ll be inhaling so much THC.

THC traces last the longest in hair tests, and it could be several months before you test clean. The type of marijuana you took doesn’t affect the results of hair tests much; the results depend much more on the other factors discussed below.

 

What Affects How Long THC Stays in Your System?

If you’re worried about dabs staying in your system longer than other types of marijuana, it’s important to know that there are other factors with a much bigger impact on how long THC stays in your body compared to the form you took the marijuana in. Below are the five most important factors that determine how long THC stays in your system. These factors are true for dabs as well as any other form of marijuana.

 

#1: If You Have a History of Marijuana Use

The number one factor that determines how long THC stays in your body is your history of marijuana use. If you regularly use marijuana, your body will build up a tolerance to the drug, and it will take longer for it to leave your system.

Marijuana stays in the system longest for heavy marijuana users and those who have been doing marijuana for a long time. It’s not unusual for them to fail a drug test even if they haven’t used marijuana in weeks (and sometimes months) since it takes such a long time for all the THC that’s built up in their bodies to leave their systems.

So if you’ve just done your first dab, you don’t need to worry as much about how long a dab stays in your system compared to if you’re a heavy marijuana user.

 

#2: How Much THC You Ingested

Another major factor in how long THC stays in your system is how much of it you ingest. As we mentioned before, a dab can be as strong as four or more joints, so it’ll likely take a bit longer (about a day or two) to leave your system than smoking regular marijuana.

Edibles are tricky because, unless you made the pot brownies or whatever the edible is yourself, you don’t know how much marijuana was added to them and, therefore, don’t know how much THC you ingested.

 

#3: How Strong the Marijuana Was

There are many different types of marijuana plants, some stronger than others. Stronger varieties will give you a longer, more powerful high because they contain more THC. This also means they’ll stay in your body longer, but not by that much. Even a very powerful type of marijuana will likely remain in your body only about one to two days more than a weak type.

 

#4: Your Weight and Age

Since THC is fat-soluble, how much body fat you have and how fast your metabolism is will also affect how quickly the THC clears your body. Generally, THC stays longer in people with more body fat since the THC has more fat cells to hang out in.

THC also tends to stay longer in people with slower metabolisms since it takes longer for them to metabolize the THC and remove it from their bodies. So, as if they didn’t already have enough going for them, young and skinny people tend to clear THC from their bodies more quickly.

 

#5: Your Exercise Habits

Again, since THC is fat soluble, exercise can make it metabolize faster and leave your body sooner. People who exercise regularly will remove THC from their body faster, and they also typically have higher metabolisms and less body fat, which also helps speed things along.

 

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Are There Any Ways to Clear THC From Your System Faster?

If you have a drug test coming up and you just did a dab, is there anything you can do to clear the THC from your system faster so you pass clean? Yes, as mentioned above, THC is fat-soluble so there are some ways to speed things along.

Before we get into them though, there are two important points to note. First, don’t go overboard with any of these techniques, and never try any “guaranteed” detox product that contains mystery ingredients. You won’t die from smoking marijuana, but people can (and have) died by taking unknown products meant to help them pass their drug test or from overexercising or guzzling too much water. Use your head when trying any of these techniques, and if you begin to feel ill, stop immediately.

Second, none of these techniques is a guarantee. You could follow them perfectly and still end up testing dirty. If you want to get an idea of what your drug test results will be ahead of time, it’s a good idea to purchase a cheap at-home drug test and see if you pass it.

Now, onto the ways that can help you get THC out of your system more quickly.

 

#1: Drink Lots of Water

Water helps flush out your system, and by drinking a lot of it you can get THC out of your body more quickly. Try to drink half a gallon of water a day (no more than that), and be aware that this is going to make you pee a lot.

 

#2: Exercise

By exercising, you’re increasing your metabolism and sweating out toxins, which includes THC. Since THC is stored in fat, burning calories will help you get rid of it faster. It’s recommended that you do about an hour of exercise a day, and try to do a workout that really gets you sweating, such as cardio. This will have the most impact on removing THC.

 

#3: Eat Low-Fat Foods

THC is stored in fat cells, so you can help get rid of it faster by reducing your fat intake and forcing your body to use some of its fat stores and metabolize the THC. Do this by eating a diet that’s relatively low-fat, low-carb, and low-sugar. There’s no need to starve yourself, but choosing a salad over a burger a couple of times can help you pass your drug test.

 

#4: Take Niacin Tablets

Niacin helps flush toxins out of the body, so you can speed things along by taking two 100mg tablets a day. Do NOT try to get results faster by taking a bunch of niacin; it won’t work and you could end up with serious side effects like gout, stroke, or liver damage.

 

Conclusion: How Long Does a Dab Stay in Your System?

So, how long does a dab stay in your system, and do dabs stay in your system longer than other types of marijuana?  The answer is that, because of their high amounts of THC, dabs do stay in your system a bit longer than edibles or smoking marijuana buds, but the difference between the three isn’t huge.

There are much more important factors that affect how long THC stays in your body, particularly your history of marijuana use.

How long does dabbing stay in your system? In general, you can expect to pass a saliva test about two days after dabbing, about one to two weeks after for a urine test, and two to four weeks for a hair test. These numbers can increase significantly though if you are a heavy marijuana user.

Do dabs show up on drug test results? Yes they do, just like other types of marijuana, but if you have a drug test coming up soon, you can try to drink lots of water, exercise, eat healthy foods, and take niacin tablets to try to increase your chances of passing it.