How Long Does Weed Stay In Your System After a Couple of Puffs?

Marijuana is becoming legal in most parts of the world due to the discovery of more and more medicinal benefits. Besides recreational purposes, cannabis products are also common for relieving anxiety, fixing sleep problems, and treating nausea, vomiting, and nerve pain.

THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the psychoactive compound in weed responsible for producing the high associated with smoking weed or using its products. Weed can remain in the body long after the effects have worn off.

Due to this, first-time users often wonder, how long does weed stay in your system after a couple of puffs? You need to know about THC and how the body metabolizes and excretes it to find out about the detection time.

How Long Does Weed Stay in Your System?

THC is a fat-soluble compound — meaning it binds to the fat cells in the body. The amount of time for THC concentration to decrease by half is called its half-life. This psychoactive compound has a very long half-life, due to which it lingers in the body long after the effects wear off.

The residual THC levels are due to the metabolites and byproducts of cannabis. People who smoke weed infrequently may wonder how long does weed stay in your system after a couple of puffs.

Infrequent use results in a half-life of 1.3 days; however, frequent use has a half-life of 5 to 13 days. Sometimes, the detection window of THC varies according to the type of test you take. For example, in chronic weed users, THC is detected in hair tests for up to 90 days of quitting.

On the other hand, saliva tests only show the presence of THC for up to five days post-consumption. We can conclude that infrequent use has a shorter detection window, while regular or heavy use, where THC metabolites are stored in the fat cells, has a longer detection window.

Therefore, a couple of puffs have a shorter detection window as the body metabolizes the compounds. Hair tests are also less likely to show positive results for infrequent consumption of a couple of puffs.

Let’s look into the factors that influence the detection period.

Frequency of Use

A couple of puffs have a shorter detection window. The THC detection window is altered by the potency and frequency of use.

More frequent use leads to THC compounds binding to the fat cells, which then get stored in the body. As a result, this residual THC stays in the body for much longer. When you take a couple of puffs, THC enters the bloodstream from the lungs.

THC stays in the blood for 1-2 days after consumption. It clears up from the bloodstream after two days.

More frequent use of cannabis products with a higher concentration of THC prolongs the time it takes to clear out weed from the system because THC byproducts keep accumulating in the fat cells.

Body Fat Percentage

People with a higher body fat percentage store more THC byproducts for longer periods than those with lower body fat.

Once the metabolites bind to the fat stored in the body, they stay in the system for longer. However, THC from a couple of puffs enters the bloodstream and is quickly metabolized.

Potency of Weed

Higher potency means that there is more THC present in the weed. This creates more metabolites, which increases the clearance time. As a result, weed stays in the system for much longer.

Detection Tests for Checking How Long Weed Stays in Your System

Several types of drug tests are available for testing the duration for which weed stays in the system. Since these drug tests measure THC, the samples must have a considerable amount for a positive test.

This means that a couple of puffs don’t prolong the detection window. Here are the common methods of testing for cannabis use and their detection periods.

Urine Tests

Urine tests are the most common drug tests. For cannabis use, this test measures the amount of THC present in the fat cells.

The urine test comes out positive if THC is more than 50 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL). Therefore, taking a couple of puffs might produce a negative test result.

Frequent cannabis use shows up on a urine test even after seven days of use, while chronic consumption with a higher potency creates a positive test even after 30 days.

Blood Tests

THC from a couple of puffs is only detected in the blood tests within minutes of inhalation. However, THC byproducts completely clear out from the bloodstream within 3-12 hours of use. For complete clearance, it might take up to two days for a blood test to be negative for THC.

Saliva Tests

Immediate use of weed from a couple of puffs is detected in the saliva tests. These tests have a shorter detection window, which lasts from 24 to 72 hours for infrequent cannabis use. For chronic users, weed residues do not clear out of the system, but saliva tests cannot detect them.

Hair Tests

After taking a couple of puffs, THC enters the bloodstream, after which it is metabolized by the liver. If you’re not smoking higher potency with more THC, it won’t get stored in the fat cells.

Hair tests can detect THC for up to 90 days. However, short-term use only shows up on hair tests for 20-30 days. For one-time use, these tests may not detect THC at all.

Here’s a summary of the detection window for infrequent use and chronic use.

Test Method	Detection Period for Infrequent Use	Detection Period for Heavy Use
Urine	1 to 3 days	7 to 30 days
Blood	Only a few minutes after inhalation	3 to 24 hours
Saliva	24 hours	24 to 72 hours
Hair	May not detect at all	Up to 90 days

Final Thoughts

Typically, smoking a couple of puffs of weed should not affect your detection window. You can also speed up your metabolism to clear out THC from the system.

Drinking lots of water, exercising, and consuming a healthy diet are some natural ways of detoxifying your body to speed up THC clearance.

Factors that affect THC metabolism and influence how long it stays in your system are variable. Therefore, it’s only wise to know the potency to determine how long the residues stay in the body.