Legality and Testing
Why is this a concern? Cannabidiol is an extract of the cannabis, or marijuana plant. This plant is and has been outlawed in most of the United States for most purposes for decades. Consequently, traces of it are quite commonly searched for in most, modern drug tests.
Specifically though, one element of the plant is tested for while no others are. Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol is the actual part tested for when drug tests are conducted. This is because of the fact that this particular compound is the one actually responsible for giving typical marijuana users a “high” and is thus the reason for its widespread legal impedance.
In short, THC is the marker that drug tests use for determining marijuana use. If this marker is absent, the test subject is then determined to not have used marijuana. CBD and THC are two completely different compounds. As a result, CBD use in itself will not provide any positive marks on a marijuana drug screen because it is not THC and has in fact been processed to thoroughly alleviate this constituent of the plant. CBD is a non-intoxicant and is a legal part of the plant while THC is an intoxicant and is illegal in most places.
Could I Really Fail?
For us to provide a short answer, no, the use of CBD oil will not typically cause one to fail a marijuana drug screen. However, for a very small percentage of users, there is an exception to this general truth that should be considered. The sometimes overlooked exception to this lies in volume of consumption. Here are the technicalities.
By law, CBD products can be manufactured in all 50 states because of the elimination of THC from all product. There is a small catch to this though. CBD products truly have been cleansed of intoxicants and any other impurities that may be found in plant matter to the greatest extent. As part of their valuable and highly effective formularies however, many CBD products do in fact legally contain a very small and negligible amount of THC. When presnt in product, this residual THC is monitored and maintained to always stay at or below 0.3%.
While this minute amount of THC is truly non-intoxicating and of no consequence to the CBD user in general use, it is still THC. Regular use of cannabidiol in most people will never amount to the short term accumulation of enough THC in the body to cause failure at drug test time. Those with greater needs requiring much higher amounts of CBD may be warned though – although not typical, one can indeed consume adequate amounts of CBD so as to build a THC count that, while non-intoxicating, can show up on the test.
Key Things to Remember
Naturally, the next question becomes one of volume in use. How much do I need to consume for this to happen – for the residual THC that could be present to accumulate into a fail marker for a drug test. Unfortunately, we cannot give a precise measure of this because of the many, many factors involved – individual body chemistry, times, individual metabolic rates, product specs, and so on. We can tell you though that in order to achieve this result, it does require a lot of use of products that do include residual THC – far beyond what is normally administered in the typical user. So, while failing a drug test due to CBD use is a very rare occurrence, it can in fact be achieved through unusually high use of product that does contain some of that latent, 0.3% or less THC.
To boil it down a little further, here are some key takeaways to guide you here.
- Always be aware of how much latent THC, if any, is included in your chosen CBD product.
- Remember that drug tests only look for accumulated THC, not CBD.
- Drug tests do not see THC until it is found to be in higher amounts than 50 nanograms per milliliter of body fluid, or 50ng/ml.
- If a CBD product does contain the maximum, 0.3% residual THC, try not to use more than 180mg of that product each day. This will keep you securely below the test failure possibility.
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