Benzoylecgonine is the major metabolite for cocaine, meaning it’s what is formed as cocaine is processed in the body. When someone is tested for cocaine, the drug testers are looking for signs of benzoylecgonine.
Cocaine is one of the most commonly used and abused drugs. It acts as a powerful stimulant that can cause users to feel separated from reality, experience intense euphoric or happy feelings, and in some cases, have feelings of being on edge or agitated.
As with most drugs, cocaine can and does linger in the body long after the effects of the drug have worn off. Depending on several factors, the drug can stay for shorter or longer periods—or in rare circumstances, even not appear when the user is tested.
As with most substances, an addiction to benzoylecgonine may require residential inpatient treatment for a proper recovery.
We’ll take a look at how long benzoylecgonine lingers within the body based on certain factors, other areas of the body that will show signs of cocaine use, and how accurate the tests are.
Factors Influencing How Long Benzoylecgonine Lingers
Several factors affect how long benzoylecgonine lingers in the system, most of them having to do with whoever is taking the drug.
Your height, weight, and age will all play a part in how long cocaine stays in your system. How healthy you are will make a difference as well. Cocaine is broken down almost entirely in the liver, so people with liver disease or issues might take longer to process the drug, making them more likely to be tested positive.
Other factors that play into how long benzoylecgonine lingers in your system include how long you’ve been using the drug, how much of it you take in, and how “pure” the drug is.
Research on how long cocaine stays in someone’s system has indicated that copious amounts of cocaine taken over the course of several days causes the drug to linger longer and be more easily detectable.
How Long is Benzoylecgonine Detectable in Urine and Other Areas of the Body?
Outside of the factors that influence how long cocaine stays in your system, cocaine is actually broken down quite quickly. On average, the drug has a half-life of about six hours. This essentially means that half of the amount taken in will be eliminated within six hours.
The second half of the drug dosage will take another six hours to be processed. Cocaine itself is processed in around one day. However, drug testers aren’t looking for signs of cocaine when they conduct their tests.
As we mentioned above, they’re looking for signs of benzoylecgonine.
How Long Does Benzoylecgonine Stay in Your Urine? Longer than a day. In fact, benzoylecgonine has a half-life twice as long as cocaine: twelve hours.
How Long is Benzoylecgonine Detectable in Urine? Because of the half-life, benzoylecgonine is detectable for up to four days after you used cocaine.
Urine samples are the most common form of testing used to detect traces of cocaine in the system. But there are other methods, including hair, blood, and saliva samples.
Hair samples can detect traces of cocaine up to 90 days after last use, while blood samples work for up to 1 day and saliva between 1 and 2 days.
How to Get Rid of Benzoylecgonine in Your System
How to Get Rid of Benzoylecgonine: There is no way to get rid of it.
Once you’ve done cocaine, benzoylecgonine is in your system, come what may. You must simply wait the allotted amount of time for it to be processed. False positives do occur in testing for the drug, most often with hair sampling. But the other methods are much more reliable and don’t result in false positives nearly as often.
If you’re taking cocaine and are concerned about being tested positive for benzoylecgonine in your system, it might be time to get help. At Steps Recovery Centers, we offer options such as our drug rehabilitation treatment program designed to work closely with you to help you overcome any harmful substance abuse or addiction situations.
Contact us today with any questions or concerns or to set up an appointment. We look forward to helping you on your journey to recovery.
