Will I Fail a Drug Test if I Take CBD?

  Not all CBD is the same. Various other articles have touched on this topic, but in this article, we’re interested in the specific chemical difference between two common types of Hemp CBD Oil products: The Broad-Spectrum products versus the Full Spectrum products.

  There are two major kinds of CBD products that will ultimately determine whether you fail a drug test. Like almost all things in CBD, this depends on whether your product contains THC or not.

 The two kinds of CBD Oils on the market are Broad Spectrum, containing absolutely no THC, and Full Spectrum, containing up to 0.3% THC by dry weight.1 It just so happens that drug tests designed to test for marijuana use are actually designed to test for THC. Whether it be through urine, blood, saliva, or even hair,2 the test will return positive if any THC is inside your body.

THC has a relatively long half-life, and thus can be detected for quite some time after it enters the blood. Various studies have been performed to determine the half-life for THC: that is, the amount of time it takes for whatever amount of THC the body current has to cut in half. One study showed a half-life anywhere between 24 to 35 hours, and this only went up for longer periods of THC consumption.3,4 Detection of THC in the blood can last between 2-7 days, or even reach 25 days for a chronic user.4

While Broad Spectrum Hemp CBD Oils should never return positive on a drug test, Full Spectrum Hemp CBD Oils will. It can take days to weeks to eliminate the THC inside the body, and during that time you will, without a doubt, test positive for THC, and it doesn’t matter whether it was legal or not. If you believe there is a chance your job will drug test, and/or a chance that failing a drug test for THC could mean losing your job, we highly recommend you stick to the Broad Spectrum Hemp CBD Oils.

¹ Hilderbrand, R. L. "Hemp & Cannabidiol:What Is a Medicine?" Missouri Medicine. 2018. Accessed May 17, 2019. 

² Hadland, Scott E., and Sharon Levy. "Objective Testing: Urine and Other Drug Tests." Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. July 2016. Accessed May 17, 2019. 

³ Huestis, Marilyn A., and Edward J. Cone. "Urinary Excretion Half-Life of 11-Nor-9-carboxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolin Humans." Therapeutic Drug Monitoring 20, no. 5 (1998): pp.570-76. doi:10.1097/00007691-199810000-00021.

⁴ Sharma, Priyamvada, Pratima Murthy, and M. M Srinivas Bharath. "Chemistry, Metabolism, and Toxicology of Cannabis:Clinical Implications." Iranian Journal of Psychiatry. 2012. Accessed May 17, 2019.