This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Eric McClure. Eric McClure is an editing fellow at wikiHow where he has been editing, researching, and creating content since 2019. A former educator and poet, his work has appeared in Carcinogenic Poetry, Shot Glass Journal, Prairie Margins, and The Rusty Nail. His digital chapbook, The Internet, was also published in TL;DR Magazine. He was the winner of the Paul Carroll award for outstanding achievement in creative writing in 2014, and he was a featured reader at the Poetry Foundation’s Open Door Reading Series in 2015. Eric holds a BA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an MEd in secondary education from DePaul University.
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If you’ve got a drug test coming up (or you simply want to improve your health), you may want to know the safest, fastest way to go about getting clean. Even though the effects of cocaine only last for about 20-40 minutes, the drug actually stays in your body for much longer. Luckily, there are plenty of effective ways to flush your body and efficiently get the cocaine out of your blood, hair, or urine. Read on to learn more.
If you need immediate help with substance abuse, contact SAMHSA’s national helpline at 1-800-662-4357 at any time for free assistance in the USA.
Things You Should Know
- Cocaine (and crack cocaine) stays in urine for 4-30 days, blood for 2-4 days, and hair for up to 90 days depending on how heavy a user you are.
- Eat a healthy diet, drink plenty of water, exercise, and abstain from alcohol or nicotine use to speed up your recovery time.
- If you have to pass a drug test, take a 5-10 mg zinc supplement if you don’t think you’re going to pass. This should interfere with the results.
Steps
Detoxing
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1Stop using cocaine immediately. If you need to get your system, stop using the drug right away. One-time users will have cocaine in their urine for at least one day afterwards, but cocaine can still be detected for up to four days even after a single use. Habitual users can however have a positive result on a drug test for up to a month. The sooner you stop using, the sooner you’ll be clean.[1]
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2Anticipate the comedown and wait for the symptoms to pass. Anyone who uses cocaine is likely to “crash” after the initial effects of the drug wear off. This is your body’s way of rebalancing itself in terms of energy and mood. Expect to be tired and potentially depressed for a short time, even up to 2-3 days.[2]
- The cocaine crash is not the same thing as withdrawal, though there are some overlapping symptoms.
- This is the primary difference between detoxing from cocaine and crack cocaine. Expect the comedown from crack to be a bit tougher and more intense.[3]
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3Prepare for withdrawal symptoms if you’re a long-term user. If you’ve been using cocaine regularly, you will probably experience withdrawal when you remove it from your life. Tell yourself ahead of time that you will get through it, and prepare yourself mentally to experience any of the following:[4]
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4Go into a detox program for the safest option. If you’ve been using cocaine for a long time or using it often, go through medically-supervised detoxification if you can. There’s no drug that can remove cocaine from your system, but a medical professional will help you through withdrawal by giving you medications to counteract the withdrawal symptoms and monitor your condition. If you need help, look online for a detox center near you.[5]
- Depending on your symptoms and how heavily you used cocaine, a detox program can last from three days to over a week. An inpatient rehabilitation program can last around 30 days.
- Outpatient detox can cost you between $1,000-1,500, whereas a full rehab program can cost up to $20,000.
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5Wait for the cocaine to fully leave your system. There’s no great way to flush your system of cocaine and its metabolites (what your body turns it into), so you just have to wait it out. If so, know that how long cocaine takes to leave your system depends upon a number of different factors:[6]
- How much you used: More cocaine takes longer to leave.
- How often you use it: The more often you use, the longer it lasts in your body.
- What was mixed with the cocaine: Purer cocaine leaves more drug in your body.
- If you were also drinking alcohol: Alcohol slows down elimination of the drug at first, keeping it in your body longer.
- How well your liver and kidneys function. If you have kidney problems or liver disease, your body won’t clear cocaine as fast.
- Your weight: Cocaine sticks around longer the more you weigh.
Speeding the Process Up
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1Drink lots of water to help your body recover. Drink a lot of juice or make yourself some tea. Water is ideal, though. This can help to flush the metabolites of cocaine out of your system more quickly. The effect of this is temporary, so you have to stay very well hydrated for the amount of time cocaine would be in your system.[7]
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2Exercise to refresh your system and clear toxins. If you stay healthy and active, your body may clear cocaine faster than someone overweight or sedentary. Be active and exercise daily while trying to clear your system of cocaine. Do some aerobic exercises to get your blood pumping, like swimming, running, biking, or playing a sport.[8]
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3Eat a healthy diet to keep your body in tiptop shape. Include fresh fruits and vegetables in every meal while you’re detoxing. Eating healthily will help your metabolism, and may possibly aid in excreting cocaine and its metabolites more quickly.[9]
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4Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which interfere with the detox. Abstain from alcohol and caffeine while your body is getting rid of cocaine. It takes longer to clear cocaine if you are drinking or smoking at the same time, so cut back or quit entirely if you can.[10]
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5Take a zinc supplement to interfere with urine drug tests. Zinc is sometimes considered a mineral that will help your body cleanse itself, though whether it works to clear cocaine from your system is not scientifically proven. However, it will render urine tests negative for cocaine.[11] Check with your doctor about whether it’s safe for you to take a zinc supplement. If so, take one daily at the recommended daily dose (8mg for adult women and 11mg for adult men).[12]
- Don’t overdo it in an attempt to clear cocaine from your system—toxicity from too much zinc can cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and headaches.
- Zinc doesn’t appear to impact hair or blood tests.
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6Buy a detox product online at your own risk. The internet is teeming with pills, powders, and beverages claiming to rid your body of cocaine—whether permanently or just for a few hours so you can pass a drug test. Many of these products claim to be natural, but because they are not supervised by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this may or may not be true. In reality, these kits and products have not been proven to remove cocaine from your system, and they can be quite expensive. If you choose to use one, it’s at your own risk.[13]
- Know that any product you use can interact with medications you take or medical conditions you have. It’s best not to take untested products from the internet.
Warnings
- Cocaine is an illegal substance with no medical benefits. Using cocaine can cause serious health problems or even death from cardiac events, especially if mixed with alcohol.[16]⧼thumbs_response⧽
- Never use cocaine if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding. It can seriously impact the health of your baby.[17]⧼thumbs_response⧽
- Using cocaine can cause or worsen anxiety and cause big swings in blood sugar for diabetics.[18]⧼thumbs_response⧽
References
- ↑ http://www.mayomedicallaboratories.com/test-catalog/Clinical+and+Interpretive/9286
- ↑ https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000947.htm
- ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3943602/
- ↑ https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/cocaine
- ↑ https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000947.htm
- ↑ https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/drugs-abuse-tests/drugs-abuse-home-use-test
- ↑ https://sciencegrid.org/pass-cocaine-drug-test/
- ↑ https://sciencegrid.org/pass-cocaine-drug-test/
- ↑ https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002149.htm
- ↑ https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000947.htm
- ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21740689/
- ↑ https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/
- ↑ https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-dubious-practice-of-detox
- ↑ https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-dubious-practice-of-detox
- ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3943602/
- ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22934772/
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/08/science/breast-milk-can-transfer-cocaine-study-says.html
- ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22934772/
About This Article
To clean your system of cocaine, first stop using the drug immediately, since it can be detected in your system up to 4 days after first-time usage. You should also try to prepare yourself mentally for common withdrawal symptoms that you may experience, such as nausea, vomiting, cravings, or depression. As soon as you stop taking the drug, drink plenty of water, tea, and juice, because staying hydrated can help remove the metabolites, which is what your body turns cocaine into. Additionally, try to include fresh fruit and vegetables in every meal you eat, which will help your body flush the drug from your system. If you were a habitual cocaine user, consider signing up to a medical detoxification program, where you can receive medical care to help manage your symptoms. For tips on how to purchase the right detox products online, read on!
