How Long Do Shrooms Stay In Your System?
If you’ve taken shrooms before, or plan to, you may be wondering how long they stay in your system. Sure, the experience will last 4-6 hours, but this doesn’t mean that the compounds in psilocybin mushrooms will be flushed out of the body when the subjective effects end.
Psilocybin and its active metabolite, psilocin, can stay in your system for up to 24 hours. However, how detectable the compounds are — and how long they stay in your system — depends on a variety of factors.
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How Long Are Shrooms Detectable By A Drug Test?
It’s difficult to say how long drug tests can detect shrooms because there are different types of them available, with some being more sensitive than others.
It should be mentioned that most routine drug tests don’t detect shrooms. This is because urinalysis is the most commonly used type of drug testing, especially when it comes to standard testing that employers use. The most popular urine test is a 5-panel test, which usually detects:
- THC (the psychoactive compound in cannabis)
- Cocaine
- PCP
- Amphetamines
- Opioids
Shrooms generally won’t show up on a 5-panel test. The same applies to 8-, 10-, and 12-panel tests.
However, specialized tests designed to detect psilocybin-containing mushrooms do exist. They’re just more costly to use. So they’re generally not used unless there’s a strong suspicion someone has recently taken magic mushrooms.
The body also metabolizes shrooms too fast for the compounds to show up in blood or saliva tests. The exception would be if the test is done within a few hours of consumption.
A 2021 review of research found that shrooms are barely detectable after six hours.
The average half-life of psilocybin is 50 minutes. The half-life of a substance is how long it takes for half of the drug to be eliminated from the body.
It generally takes 5-6 half-lives for a substance to be completely eliminated from your system. In the case of psilocybin, after three hours, about two-thirds of the dose has been eliminated.
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Urine Tests
Most routine drug tests are urine tests, as we have seen. Most people’s bodies eliminate the compounds found in shrooms within 24 hours, making them undetectable by urine drug tests.
Hair Follicle Test
Hair follicle tests look for drug use within the past 90 days. However, this type of testing isn’t common due to the cost.
Specialized Testing
Drug tests of psilocybin and psilocin involve screening urine samples using high-performance liquid chromatography or tandem mass spectrometry. The report is usually made available between 4-8 days.
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What Factors Affect Detection?
There are many factors that can affect how long shrooms stay in your system. Many of these factors are outside of your control, whereas others you do have control over.
The Time Between Ingestion And Testing
Psychedelic compounds like psilocybin and psilocin can be eliminated from the body quickly. Nonetheless, the time between ingesting shrooms and testing can affect whether these compounds will show up on a drug test. This does depend on the type of test that is used, of course.
The sooner a drug test is carried out after consuming shrooms or any other substance, the higher the chances that it can be detected.
Psilocybin Mushroom Species
There are over 200 species of psilocybin-containing mushrooms, which are distributed around the world. The quantities of psilocybin and psilocin vary between species.
The more psilocybin and psilocin in the particular species, the longer the compounds will hang around in the body. The potency of your shrooms, therefore, matters in how long they will be detectable.
Method Of Consumption
The way that you consume shrooms can affect how quickly it passes through your body. The different methods of consumption include:
- Fresh
- Dried
- Powdered
- Eaten with food
- Magic mushroom tea
- Lemon tekking
With lemon tekking, the idea is that the citric acid in lemon juice will break down the mushrooms prior to consumption. This can lead to a faster onset and more intense and short-lived experience. This may also shorten how long the psychedelic compounds are detectable in your system.
Dosage
Your shrooms dosage also plays an important role in how long the compounds in shrooms stay in your system. Taking a microdose of shrooms (0.1-02 g) is a lot lower than a high dose (3.5+ g), so the compounds may stay in your system for a much shorter amount of time.
Also, if you re-dose (as some people do), this will increase the amount of time the compounds stay in your system.
Age
Your metabolism and kidney and liver function slow with age, which can delay the excretion of psilocybin and psilocin from your body.
The older you are, the longer shrooms tend to stay in your system. This applies to other substances, too.
Your Body
Each body is different. This means that no two bodies process substances at the exact same speed.
Factors like your body mass index (BMI), metabolism, and water content can affect how quickly substances are excreted from your body. People with higher body mass tend to excrete psilocybin faster than those with a low BMI.
As we have seen with age, liver and kidney function matter when it comes to excreting psilocybin. Having liver or kidney disease, therefore, can slow down the time it takes for psilocybin to pass through the body.
Activity Levels
Psilocybin is excreted faster in physically active people with higher metabolism rates.
What’s In Your Stomach
How much food and liquid is in your stomach when you consume shrooms affects how long they’ll stay in your system as well. The more food that’s in there when you take them, the slower they’ll move through your digestive system.
Many users prefer to take shrooms on an empty stomach. This can reduce nausea, as well as result in a quicker come-up and a more intense experience. In addition, this will mean the compounds will be in your system for a shorter amount of time.
When it comes to water, hydration speeds up psilocybin excretion.
Other Substances
Using shrooms with other substances can result in unpredictable effects, as well as changes in how long shrooms stay in your system. If you drink alcohol or take any other substance with shrooms, this could affect how the compounds are processed by your body.
Tolerance
If you’ve built up a tolerance to a drug with regular consumption, it can metabolize more quickly in your body. This leads to a shorter period of time in your system.
The human body quickly builds tolerance to psilocybin, such that people need much higher doses after only a few days of repeated use. This makes it extremely difficult to have any effect after more than four days of repeated usage.
Microdosing regimens, like the Fadiman Protocol, involve taking classic psychedelics on one day with two days off. This, therefore, may lead to psilocybin tolerance. Subsequent doses of psilocybin mushrooms, then, may remain in the body for a shorter amount of time compared to the first dosing day.
Nevertheless, research into tolerance developing from microdosing is limited. In one small study in Norway of men who microdosed psychedelics, some reported tolerance to the effects of shrooms, whereas others didn’t.
Can You Get Shrooms Out Of Your System Any Quicker?
Not really. Drinking water can help move the psychedelic compounds through your system a bit faster, but enough to make a significant difference if you’re trying to avoid detection.
Tripping After Shrooms Have Left Your System
Even though shrooms don’t stay in your system that long, it’s normal to feel a little different for a few hours (or even a few days) after your trip.
The psilocybin may have been fully metabolized and excreted from your system, and your tolerance for shrooms is back to normal in your brain, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready for your next trip.
Since a psilocybin experience can be intense, you may still be experiencing an “after-glow” in the days that follow. This is a period after a trip where you experience heightened joy, serenity, confidence, and connection to others.
During this after-glow state, taking shrooms can result in a different experience compared to the recent trip. It may be more positive and easy-going, for instance, but it may not be as deep.
How Long Does It Take For Shrooms To Kick In?
Generally, shrooms kick in within 30-60 minutes. However, there are several factors that can alter this amount of time.
The amount of food you have in your stomach when you consume the mushrooms will play a role in how quickly the psilocybin gets absorbed and metabolized. This affects the amount of time it takes for the effects to begin.
If you’ve eaten shortly before ingesting shrooms, you likely won’t feel the effects for about an hour. If you take them on an empty stomach, you might notice your trip starting within just 20-30 minutes. Lemon tekking can result in an even quicker onset.
In addition, powdered, dried shrooms will lead to a faster onset than consuming fresh mushrooms.
How Long Do The Effects Of Psilocybin Last?
Most people report magic mushroom experiences lasting 4-6 hours. There may be some lingering effects that can last into the next day. Many people experience an after-glow, while others may feel more depressed and anxious after their experience. A ‘bad trip’, for instance, may result in these latter negative effects, although they tend to pass.
The factors that can have the duration of a shroom trip include:
- How much you take
- The mushroom species
- How you consume them
- Age
- Your metabolism
- Your tolerance
- Any other substance you might’ve taken
Within 24 hours, however, most people go back to feeling like themselves.
How Long Do Shrooms Stay In Your System – The Bottom Line
Shrooms are eliminated from the body quickly. Nonetheless, there are many variables that make it impossible to say exactly how long they’ll stay in your system.
Since routine drug tests don’t look for psilocybin and psilocin, you probably don’t need to worry about them showing up on a drug test.
