If you use or have used heroin in the past and need to take a drug test—be it for medical, work-related, or legal reasons—you’re probably wondering, “How long does heroin stay in your system?”
The answer to this question is more complex than you may expect.
After all, everybody processes substances differently, and various factors may impact your body’s ability to break down and eliminate drugs, including heroin.
Keep on reading to learn more about the effects of heroin on the body, the factors that determine how long it stays in your system, and the detection windows for different drug tests.
What Is Heroin?
Heroin is a highly addictive semi-synthetic opioid drug derived from morphine, an alkaloid naturally occurring in poppy plants. It can be snorted, smoked, or injected and comes in several forms, including:
- White or brown powder
- Black tar-like substance
- Off-white granules
While many opioids, including morphine, are accepted for medical use in the United States (most commonly for pain treatment), heroin isn’t FDA-approved for any medicinal purposes. This, coupled with the fact that it carries a high potential for abuse, dependence, and addiction, explains why heroin is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance and cannot be obtained legally.
On the streets, heroin is commonly called:
- Dope
- H
- Horse
- Junk
- China White
- White Horse
- Smack
- Brown Sugar
- Hell Dust
Like other illicit drugs, heroin is often “cut” with other substances, such as baking soda, starch, and even rat poison. It can also be mixed with other drugs, such as fentanyl. While this can enhance the drug’s effects and bring larger profits to sellers, it dramatically increases the risk of a life-threatening overdose; users never really know what they’re buying and using.
How Does Heroin Affect Your Body?
When consumed, heroin is quickly converted into morphine and affects your body by binding to the same opioid receptors in the brain as prescription opioids, relieving pain and triggering a sudden rush of dopamine. This causes the user to feel “high.” Once the euphoria wears off, users feel sedated, relaxed, and sleepy.
As a potent, fast-acting opioid, heroin induces intense euphoric feelings, and many users will try to replicate them by using the drug again. Repeated heroin use can lead to tolerance, dependence, and addiction.
The onset and duration of heroin effects primarily depend on the method of administration, the amount of heroin taken, your tolerance level, and the drug’s potency. Its effects may start as early as 10 seconds following consumption and last for as long as 4–5 hours.
Heroin Half-Life
Heroin’s half-life ranges from 3 to 6 minutes on average, with one study suggesting that it has a half-life of 7.6 minutes. This means that half a dose of heroin will already be cleared out of your system within minutes after taking this drug.
Compared to other opioids, heroin has a very short half-life. Nonetheless, its effects are felt for far longer than that since it’s broken down into metabolites with longer half-lives. 6-monoacetylmorphine, for example, has a half-life of around 6–30 minutes, whereas that of morphine ranges between 2–4 hours.
How Long Does Heroin Stay in Your System?
Since it may take 4–5 half-lives to fully eliminate the drug, heroin may stay in your system for around 15–40 minutes. However, drug tests may detect traces of heroin and its metabolites beyond this time frame, especially if you’ve been using it for a long time.
On that note, let’s explore the detection window for heroin and its metabolites in different drug tests.
How Long Does Heroin Stay in Blood?
Heroin stays in the blood and can be detected by blood tests for 5–6 hours following ingestion. Due to such a short detection window, these tests are rarely administered and are most effective when conducted promptly after ingestion. Certain blood tests, though, may detect heroin and its metabolites for up to 2 days after the last dose.
How Long Does Heroin Stay in Hair?
Traces of heroin can stay in the hair and be detected by hair follicle tests for up to 90 days after taking the last dose. Prolonged use of heroin can extend this detection window to six months and beyond.
How Long Does Heroin Stay in Saliva?
Like blood tests, saliva samples can detect the presence of heroin in the body for up to 5–6 hours following ingestion, though some tests may detect its metabolites for up to 2 days. These tests are most effective when administered shortly after ingestion and can detect heroin most accurately in those who smoke it as opposed to snorting or injecting it.
How Long Does Heroin Stay in Urine?
Heroin can stay in urine and be detected in urine samples for up to 48 hours after the last dose, with some tests detecting its metabolites for up to 4–7 days following ingestion. Urine tests are the most common method of testing for heroin, as they are non-invasive and have a longer detection window than blood and saliva tests.
Factors That Determine How Long Heroin Stays in Your System
Several factors—such as your metabolism, duration and amount of heroin consumption, and level of hydration, among others—may affect how quickly your body processes heroin. Because of this, the answer to the question, “How long does heroin stay in your system?” may vary from person to person.
Let’s discuss different factors that may determine how long heroin stays in your body:
- Metabolism. People with a fast metabolism will need less time to break down and eliminate heroin than those with a lower metabolic rate. Because of this, your age, activity level, diet, etc., may also affect how long heroin stays in your system.
- Hydration level. Drinking lots of fluids may dilute the concentration of heroin in your system. This can make it more difficult for it to be detected in urine.
- Duration and amount of heroin consumption. The longer, more frequently, and at higher doses you’ve been using heroin, the more time your body will need to clear it out of the system.
- Liver health. Heroin is metabolized in the liver. This means liver problems can make it harder for your body to process and flush out heroin, causing it to stay longer in the system.
- Purity of heroin. As an illicit drug, heroin is unregulated, which means its purity and potency vary greatly. The purer and stronger the drug, the longer it may linger in your system.
- Interactions with other drugs. Mixing heroin with certain drugs might impact your body’s ability to break down substances. Certain herbal medicines, supplements, and medications may also affect how long heroin stays in your system.
Heroin Addiction
Due to the highly addictive nature of heroin, anyone taking this drug is exposed to the risk of heroin addiction.
Like other opioids, heroin alters brain chemistry, hindering the production of natural endorphins and stimulating that of opioid receptors. This chemical brain imbalance is the underlying cause of dependence and opioid addiction.
Even though anyone can get addicted, some people are more vulnerable to heroin addiction than others. A 2013 study found that almost 80% of heroin users have misused prescription painkillers in the past. Similarly, other sources claim that people addicted to prescription opioids are 40 times more likely to develop a heroin addiction.
This suggests that prescription opioid abuse and addiction are the most significant risk factors for heroin addiction. Unfortunately, too many people resort to illicit drugs like heroin if they can’t obtain opioids, such as oxycodone, legally through their doctor. Hence, it’s of utmost importance to strictly follow your doctor’s instructions if you’ve been prescribed opioids.
Heroin Withdrawal Symptoms
Heroin withdrawal symptoms happen when people addicted to this drug stop taking it or reduce their usual intake.
Most people will experience the first withdrawal symptoms within just 6–12 hours after taking their last heroin dose. These symptoms usually last around a week, though psychological symptoms like cravings may linger for months after quitting the drug.
The most common symptoms of heroin withdrawal are:
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea and vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Trouble concentrating
- Apathy
- Fever, runny nose, and other flu-like symptoms
- Anxiety
- Fatigue
- Intense heroin cravings
- Dilated pupils
- Insomnia
- Depression
- Headaches
- Muscle pain
- Abdominal cramps
Quitting heroin “cold turkey” can lead to even more severe symptoms, increasing the risk of relapse. Given that abstaining from heroin reduces your tolerance to it, relapse dramatically increases the risk of a potentially fatal opioid overdose. For this reason, anyone seeking to stop using heroin should seek professional help.
ANR Opioid Dependence Treatment
Accelerated Neuro-Regulation (ANR) is an innovative opioid addiction treatment developed by Dr. Andre Waismann that can help you make a lasting recovery from heroin dependence within days.
The therapeutic goal of the ANR treatment is to bring your brain to its pre-addiction state through the modulation of the endorphin-receptor system. By reversing the opioid-induced changes to the brain, ANR eliminates the root cause of heroin addiction along with withdrawal symptoms and cravings, allowing you to leave the fear of relapse in the past.
Moreover, ANR offers an individualized approach to treating drug addiction. The treatment is tailored to each patient’s unique needs and medical history, which makes it safe even for those with complex health issues.
With an average hospital stay of 36 hours, the ANR treatment is quick, safe, and highly effective in treating opioid addiction. Thus far, it has helped more than 24,000 people break free from the chains of opioid dependence.
Contact us today to book a free consultation!
Key Takeaways
The question “How long does heroin stay in your body?” may not have a straightforward answer, but anyone using it should know that it can be detected for up to 90 days after the last dose.
Let’s reiterate the key points we covered:
- Heroin is a highly addictive illegal drug that converts into morphine once consumed.
- Metabolism, the extent of heroin use, and the level of hydration, among other factors, can impact how long heroin stays in your system.
- Urine tests, which are most frequently performed to test for heroin, can detect its traces and metabolites for up to 48 hours following ingestion.
How Long Does Heroin Stay in Your System FAQ
How long it takes to get heroin out of your system depends on your metabolism, liver function, duration of heroin use, and other factors. While heroin usually only stays in the system for up to an hour after consumption, its metabolites linger and remain detectable for far longer.
There’s no predetermined for how long heroin can stay in your system, as every person processes and eliminates substances differently.
Heroin can be snorted, smoked, or injected. Since it is an illicit drug, its use constitutes opioid abuse, regardless of the method of administration.
The most dangerous long-term effects of using heroin are opioid dependence and addiction. Some other common long-term effects of using heroin include tolerance, liver disease, and lung damage. Injecting heroin also increases the risk of skin infections, collapsed veins, and bloodborne diseases like HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, etc.
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