How Long Does Heroin Stay in Your Body?

While heroin has a short half-life of only a few minutes, its effects are still felt for hours.

The reason for this lies in simple medical chemistry.

In pharmacology, metabolism is when a chemical compound breaks down into its constituent parts. Within the large umbrella of opioids, some need to be metabolized into other chemicals to affect the body, while others do not.

Many drugs, particularly when taken orally, are metabolized first by the liver. However, heroin largely bypasses this. Its chemical properties allow heroin to travel through the bloodstream and flood through the brain.

Once heroin enters the body, it races to the brain’s opioid receptors, and your body begins to break down the heroin to restore homeostasis.

The exact rate at which heroin and its subsequent components are metabolized is different for every user.

The amount of time heroin will stay in the body is dependent on:

• Overall bodyweight
• Body fat content
• Age
• Sex
• Dosage volume
• Hydration
• Quality and purity of the dose
• Liver and kidney health

On average, heroin has a half-life of two to eight minutes, meaning that it has broken down to 50% of its initial volume in that period. It takes between four and five half-lives – somewhere between eight and forty-eight minutes – for heroin to be eliminated entirely from the system.

When it breaks down, this semisynthetic opioid becomes metabolized into morphine and 6-acetyl morphine (6-AM). Morphine has a longer half-life of the two, lasting up to seven hours. Once morphine breaks down, the high subsides, but the compounds it turns into are detectable in urine tests for days.

The rate at which a specific individual’s body metabolizes heroin is a major factor in how long it takes for heroin to stop being detectable by mainstream tests.

That said, the drug is not present in detectable volumes in blood or saliva except for in the first one to two days after use.

In most types of tests, heroin is detectable for the following periods:

• Urine tests – can detect metabolites for up to sixty hours after the last dose. Urine tests are the most common form of heroin testing.
• Blood tests – the compound 6-AM can be tested for in blood; however, it is usually only detectable for a maximum of two days.
• Saliva tests – rapid metabolism means that heroin metabolites are only detectable in saliva for up to an hour after injected use or five hours when it is smoked.
• Hair follicle tests – heroin is detectable in hair follicles for up to ninety days after one use. In certain instances, these tests can detect heroin for up to six months after heavy use.

If you are planning on stopping heroin use, Cirque Lodge can help.

Medical assistance can be the difference between success and relapse. Our heroin addiction treatment options can ease withdrawal and help pave the way to long-term sobriety.

We offer medically assisted detox for clients suffering from heroin addiction, as well as an extensive therapeutic treatment programme and follow-up support to help you treat your condition at its core.