Cocaine is the drug most often abused by the workforce and concerned employers interested in conducting drug testing must first learn exactly how long cocaine stays in the system. The drug half life of cocaine, or the time it takes for traces to be removed from the body, is dependent on a wide variety of external factors, and a strong knowledge of these factors is crucial when trying to implement an effective drug testing program. Typically, cocaine stays in the system for 1 to 3 days depending on the potency of the drug. However, when testing for cocaine abuse, traces of the substance itself are not actually the target of a quality testing kit. Instead, cocaine drug test kits search for the specific metabolite that the body produces when the drug is ingested. The metabolite for cocaine is called benzoylecgonine and it can be detected in by drug testing kits for up to 30 days after the last time the drug was used. Knowing the difference between testing for cocaine and testing for cocaine’s metabolite is the key to figuring out how long cocaine stays in the system, which is integral to devising a successful cocaine drug testing program.

The issue of how long cocaine stays in the system is also based on many external variables, such as the purity of the cocaine being ingested, the method of ingestion (smoking, snorting, etc.), the frequency of use, and whether or not any other drugs were used in conjunction. Gaining an insight into these factors is a key component in employer drug testing. The drug testing option you choose, whether urinalysis, hair follicle, or blood testing, will also determine how long cocaine is detectable in the system. A standard urinalysis test for cocaine will trace the drug for up to one week for chronic users, and has a testing range of 2-3 days for occasional users if the drug. The hair follicle cocaine drug test is a powerful tool which can detect the presence of cocaine in the system for up to 90 days. The metabolite produced by the body when cocaine is ingested can be stored in hair growth for a long time after the actual cocaine has been passed from the system. Finding out how long cocaine stays in the system under various circumstances is the key to devising a drug testing program which is reliable and accurate.