Here’s How Long THCA Remains in Your System

If you’re wondering how long THCA stays in your system, here’s the best answer you’re going to get: it depends.

That’s probably not the answer you want to hear, but it’s the truth. The amount of time THCA stays in your system depends on a number of factors, including age, weight, sex, and even diet.

(We’ll get into all of those things in more detail later.)

To provide a rough estimation of how long THCA stays in your system, you can generally rely on the following timeframes:

• 7-10 days for infrequent or one-time use
• 14-30 days for frequent/common use
• 1-3 months for chronic use

It’s important to note, however, that drug tests aren’t specifically looking for THCA. Rather, they are testing for the presence of THC metabolites. Later in the article, we’ll get into more detail regarding how THCA is broken down metabolically, but suffice it to say that if THCA is consumed raw (i.e., in raw cannabis flower), it can produce a false positive on a drug screening.

Remember, These Are Only Estimates!

Say, for example, that you’ve never used cannabis before, and you try some THCA flower for the first time. You can reasonably expect detectable THCA metabolites to remain in your system for a week or even more – even if you’ve never used cannabis before.

Is it possible for that number to be lower? Sure. Maybe you used THCA once, and after 48 hours, it’s completely undetectable by drug testing.

As we said earlier, the exact length of time will differ from person to person and depend on a variety of factors.

Factors That Affect How Long THCA Stays in Your System

Here are several important factors that may affect how long THCA stays in your system:

• Age
• Weight
• Sex (M/F)
• Diet
• Lifestyle / Activity
• Genetics

Generally speaking, the younger you are, the faster you will eliminate THCA and its metabolites from your body. This is because young people generally have a high metabolic rate; as we age, our metabolic rate tends to slow down substantially.

In other words, if you’re a young person (i.e., under the age of 30) and you use THCA once, you can expect metabolites to remain detectable for 2-3 days.

Again, however, these are general estimates—nothing more.

Another important factor is weight. The more you weigh, the more fat deposits you have in your body. THCA (and, in fact, all cannabinoids) are lipophilic; this means they are chemically drawn to fat.

As the body breaks down the THCA you consume, metabolites make their way to fatty tissue. If you’re overweight and have a lot of fat, your body will take a while to get rid of the THCA.

(This is because, as we all know, fat is hard to burn off.)

Additional Factors That May Come Into Play

Other factors that may affect how long THCA stays in your system include sex (whether you’re male or female), diet, genetics, and your general lifestyle and activity level.

If you’re female, research and anatomy suggest you have, on average, a higher percentage of body fat and a lower metabolic rate than males.

This means that, generally speaking, females can expect THCA to stay longer in their system.

Diet also comes into play, but this is often more of a long-term rather than an immediate factor.

For example, if your diet has long consisted of high-fat, high-sugar foods, odds are you’re overweight and have a lot of fat stored in your body. As such, THCA will probably stay in your system longer than it would for someone who has a clean, low-fat diet.

General lifestyle also comes into play when determining how long THCA might remain detectable in your body.

If you’re fit, active, and healthy, you probably have a low percentage of body fat and a high metabolic rate. This means your body will process and expel THCA faster than someone who is not active and/or has a poor diet.

Lastly, genetics also matter, as they play a big role in metabolism, body fat percentage, weight, and so forth.

Maybe you’re naturally big and store a lot of body fat with a low metabolic rate. (This can be the case even if you eat right and work out a lot.) In this scenario, your body is going to store THCA much longer compared to someone who is genetically thin and has a high metabolism.

Different Types of Drug Tests Can Also Have an Effect

In addition to lifestyle and genetic factors, different types of drug tests will also determine how long THCA metabolites can remain detectable in your system.

Let’s go back to the general guidelines we mentioned at the start of this article:

• 7-10 days for infrequent or one-time use
• 14-30 days for frequent/common use
• 1-3 months for chronic use

These estimates assume THCA detection using urine drug screening, which is the most common test used for personal and employment purposes. Your employer doesn’t care whether THCA gets you high or not; if they discover evidence of its use, you could be in trouble depending on where you live.

If you’re having a hair follicle sample tested, however, you can realistically double the numbers. For example, if you use THCA infrequently (even once), you can expect metabolites to show up on a hair follicle drug test for up to 30 days. This is because metabolic action in the scalp is far slower than it is in the gut and other parts of the body.

Oral swab drug tests, on the other hand, have a detection period that is far lower than both urine and hair follicle screenings. For oral tests, the following guidelines can be used:

• 1-2 days for infrequent or one-time use
• 7-10 days for frequent/common use
• 14 days for chronic use

Again, it is important to remember that these numbers are for rough estimation purposes only. They are by no means conclusive when it comes to how long THCA stays in your system.

How Long Does THCA Remain In Your System? There Is No Definitive Answer!

Again, we emphasize that the information in this post is to be used for general estimations only. There is no conclusive answer to the question of how long THCA stays in your system.

Use the following timeframe as a general jumping-off point:

• 7-10 days for infrequent or one-time use
• 14-30 days for frequent/common use
• 1-3 months for chronic use

From there, adjust each one according to the factors discussed in the article.