20 Doesn't marijuana stay in your fat cells and keep you high for months?
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This article is from the Hemp / Cannabis / Marijuana FAQ, by Brian S. Julin verdant@twain.ucs.umass.edu with numerous contributions by others.
20 Doesn't marijuana stay in your fat cells and keep you high for months?
No. The part of marijuana that gets you high is called
`Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.' Most people just call this
THC, but this is confusing: your body will change
Delta-9-THC into more inert molecules known as
`metabolites,' which don't get you high. Unfortunately,
these chemicals also have the word `tetrahydrocannabinol' in
them and they are also called THC -- so many people think
that the metabolites get you high. Anti-drug pamphlets say
that THC gets stored in your fat cells and then leaks out
later like one of those `time release capsules' advertised
on television. They say it can keep you high all day or
even longer. This is not true, marijuana only keeps you
high for a few hours, and it is not right to think that a
person who fails a drug test is always high on drugs,
either.
Two of these metabolites are called
`11-hydroxy-tetrahydrocannabinol' and
`11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol' but we will
call them 11-OH-THC and 11-nor instead. These are the
chemicals which stay in your fatty cells. There is almost
no Delta-9-THC left over a few hours after smoking
marijuana, and scientific studies which measure the effects
of marijuana agree with this fact.
``Marijuana Chemistry Genetics, Processing, and Potency'' by Michael
Starks pub. Ronin Inc., 1990.
``Marijuana Cannabinoids Neurobiology and Neurophysiology'' ed. Laura
Murphy, Andrzej Bartke ed. pub. CRC Press Boca Raton, FL, 1992.
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