Expert: Caroline West - 7/31/2010

Question
QUESTION: I'm sorry to be bothering you again. I didn't even want to ask this but my friend wanted this information. Since she did 3 shots of meth one time how long until the meth is out of her system and is there anything she can do to speed up the process? She's up for a good job and regretting it now. Can you help?

ANSWER: Hi Jennifer,don't worry,your not bothering me,this is what I'm here for.

Injecting Meth takes longer to get out of your system than smoking it. But as a general rule it lasts in your urine 3-6 days,your blood 24-72 hours and in your hair up to 90 days.

The best thing for your friend to do is drink lots of water. This will really help to flush it out quicker but she needs to drink about 2.5 litres of it a day. Also a popular one is Cranberry juice,about the same amount as it clears out the urinary tract. I would do both because the water will get it out from all the cells in her body not just the urinary tract. Also taking Vitamin K and Niacin is supposed to speed it up as well.

But,there is a down side to all this that I have to mention. There are some ingredients put in Meth which can last a whole lot longer. Because it's being bought on the street,there is no way of knowing what they have cut it with or what they have put in it. Just tell your friend to be a bit more careful of when she uses if she has a test coming up. But,drinking the water and the cranberry juice will get even those ingredients out much faster.

I hope that helps. Honestly if there is anything else at all you or your friend wants to ask,just write in. All the best and I wish her well on getting that job,Caroline.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: So if the test is taken about a solid 2 weeks after the injection she might have a chance of passing the u/a?

Answer
Hi Jennifer. She does have a very,very good chance of passing. But,there is still that element of it not passing and that's the honest truth. Everyone is saying that it takes 3-7 days to get out of the body for a urine test,but there are also other factors involved which I mentioned. There is no way I can say for 100% surety she will pass,but in my mind she has an 85% chance of passing providing she drinks 2.5 litres of water a day and I'm not kidding,this will do herself a huge favour. Jennifer lots of people who have used other drugs from Cannabis to Heroin has done this with water,it's a given when it comes to the best possible chance of passing the test,but she's got to do it from today and every day.

A woman just wrote to me the other day saying that she hadn't used Meth for months and she got a false positive reading. Now this lady was taking medication for Hayfever and one of the ingredients in it was a drug that is used a hell of a lot in Meth labs. And because of this innocent drug,she came up positive and is in a lot of trouble. You cannot tell what this Meth she took has in it and neither can I so there is no way I can say for 100% sure she'll pass but she does have a good chance and that is all I can say to you.

Look,she should be ok. Tell her to drink that amount of water every day and then at least she knows that she is doing something productive to flush whatever is left in her system out. That's the best advice I can give. Like I said,she has an 85% chance of passing it if she does what we have all done at some point to pass a test,drink lots and lots of water. I really hope she passes,Caroline.