How Long Does Cocaine Stay in Your System?

Whether you are concerned about testing positive on a drug test or worried about potential health effects, it is important to know, how long does cocaine stay in your system?

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How Does Cocaine Affect Your Body and Mind?

Cocaine is a stimulant, which means that it accelerates the delivery of messages throughout your central nervous system (CNS). It does this primarily by artificially increasing the amount of dopamine in your system.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that influences experiences such as mood, learning, reward, and pleasure:

• Usually, certain nerve cells release dopamine when you do something enjoyable, such as eating, having sex, listening to certain music, or mastering a new skill. Dopamine molecules pass into the synapses, or small gaps that separate nerve cells. Once they have delivered their message, they are transported back to the originating neuron, which reabsorbs them for later re-use.
• When you use cocaine, the drug interferes with the transport and reabsorption of dopamine. This leads to a dopamine buildup in synapses throughout your CNS. This buildup has the effect of amplifying the message that the dopamine is delivering. Thus, instead of a small increase in mood, energy, and confidence, you experience an elevated rush of these and similar feelings.

When your body has eliminated the drug from your system, your nerve cells may be temporarily incapable of naturally generating ample amounts of dopamine. This causes the physical and psychological crash that many people experience as cocaine’s effects begin to wear off.

How Long Does Cocaine Stay in Your System?

Given the substance’s powerful effects, as well as the discomfort that can occur when these effects subside, it is understandable to want to know how long does cocaine stay in your system? 

Unfortunately, there is no exact answer to this question. The amount of time that it takes your body to break down and eliminate cocaine from your system can be influenced by several personal factors, including:

• Your age, gender, weight, and metabolism
• How much cocaine you used
• How frequently you use cocaine
• How you ingested the drug (such as by smoking, snorting, or injecting it)
• If you have also been using alcohol or certain other substances

Also, if the question, how long does cocaine stay in your system, is a way of asking how long you can test positive for the drug, that answer can vary depending on which type of sample you are required to provide.

How Your Body Processes Cocaine

The process that your body uses to break down cocaine, convert certain components into energy, and prepare waste for elimination from your system is referred to as metabolization. 

The liver plays a key role in this process, but the route that cocaine takes to your liver can vary depending on how you used the drug:

• When you snort or swallow cocaine, it will be somewhat slowly absorbed into your bloodstream through membranes in your nose or digestive tract. 
• If you smoke crack, the drug will quickly pass from your lungs into your bloodstream.
• Injecting a cocaine solution will, of course, put the drug directly into your bloodstream.

As your blood circulates through your liver, certain enzymes begin to break down the cocaine molecules into chemical compounds called metabolites:

• The two main metabolites of cocaine are benzoylecgonine (BE) and ecgonine methyl ester (EME). 
• Other, less prevalent metabolites include norcocaine, p-hydroxycocaine, and m-hydroxybenzoylecgonine.
• If you have both alcohol and cocaine in your system, your liver will also produce a cocaine metabolite called cocaethylene.

Cocaine has a half-life of about 60-90 minutes. A half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of a substance to be eliminated from your body. 

It usually takes four to five half-lives before a substance falls below a clinically significant level in your system. For cocaine, this means that most traces of the drug will be gone within 4-7.5 hours.

However, the half-lives of some cocaine metabolites are much longer, which is why you may test positive for the drug well after it should have been fully eliminated from your system. Since your body produces unique metabolites for each substance, the presence of a cocaine metabolite is proof that you recently had that drug in your body,

Tests that Can Detect Cocaine

Levels of cocaine and cocaine metabolites are not consistent throughout your body. Thus, in addition to which metabolites a drug test is designed to find, the detection window can also vary depending on what type of sample is analyzed.

General estimates for how long you may test positive for cocaine when submitting typical samples include:

• Blood: Up to 48 hours (two days) after the last time you used cocaine
• Saliva: Up to 48 hours
• Urine: Up to 96 hours (four days)
• Hair follicles: Up to 90 days (three months)

Please note that these are not exact ranges. For example, passing the 48-hour mark does not guarantee that you will not test positive for cocaine on a blood or saliva test.

The only ways to be certain that you won’t test positive for cocaine are never to use the drug or to stop several months before you are tested.

What Are the Signs of Cocaine Addiction?

Being unwilling or unable to stop using cocaine can be a sign that you have a problem. But it is by no means the only indication that you have developed stimulant use disorder (which is the clinical term for cocaine addiction).

Other common signs of cocaine addiction include:

• Having strong cravings for the drug
• No longer participating in important social, recreational, or work-related activities because of your cocaine use
• Using cocaine in circumstances that present obvious physical hazards, such as driving while under the influence of cocaine or combining cocaine with other drugs
• Continuing to use cocaine even after incurring some type of harm – such as having health problems, being arrested, or losing a relationship – as a result of your prior use
• Lying to loved ones about the amount and frequency of your cocaine use
• Developing tolerance, which means you need to use larger or more potent amounts of cocaine to experience the effects that you could previously achieve via smaller doses
• Experiencing physical and/or psychological withdrawal symptoms when you try to stop using cocaine or significantly reduce your use of the drug
• Having a persistent desire to quit, but being unable to do so

If any of these signs sound familiar to you, a good first step would be to consult with your doctor or schedule an assessment with a reputable addiction treatment provider in your area.

Continued compulsive cocaine use can expose you to considerable harm, including risk of sudden death. But when you get the right type of help, you can stop using this dangerous drug and begin to live a much healthier and more enjoyable life in recovery.

Learn More About Cocaine Addiction Treatment in Atlanta     

Valor Behavioral Health is a premier source of personalized outpatient care for adults and adolescents who have become addicted to cocaine and other substances. We also offer dual diagnosis services for patients with co-occurring mental health concerns.

To learn more about treatment options at our addiction rehab in Atlanta, GA, or to schedule a free consultation, please visit our Admissions page or call us today.