Magic mushrooms boldly re-entered public discussion, owing to their promised mental health advantages. But, let’s be honest. For hundreds of years, indigenous peoples have utilized psilocybin mushrooms to produce transformational spiritual experiences. So, although mushrooms may seem to be developing, they have been around all along. These mycelial fungi were only waiting for the proper moment to pique your curiosity.
You may wonder how to integrate magic mushrooms into your life without experiencing unintended repercussions now that they have your attention. You may wonder whether using shrooms will cause you to fail a drug test.
Do shrooms show up in a drug test?
Shrooms are not often detected in drug testing. Many tests used in common or daily applications, such as screening job candidates, do not detect these medications.
While many typical panel tests do not identify mushrooms, there are special tests that do.
According to the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association, hallucinogen testing may contain markers for the following substances:
- LSD mushrooms
- Mescaline
- Peyote
These chemicals are metabolized rather fast by the body. However, a person may be subjected to hallucinogen testing in rare instances, such as if they seem to be under the influence of these drugs.
There is also the possibility that magic mushrooms may get tainted with other detectable narcotics. A dishonest seller may theoretically mix ordinary mushrooms with other substances, which a drug panel test could detect.
Drug testing in the urine
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), urine tests are widely used to screen for five types of drugs, including cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, phencyclidine, or PCP.
This is often referred to as the five-panel test.
Other tests may include additional panels, including testing for categories such as:
- Barbituates
- Alcohol
- Benzodiazepines
- MDMA
- Spropoxyphene
- Smethadone
- Smethaqualone
Drug testing on hair follicles
Some tests can detect substances such as hallucinogens over a longer period.
Hair follicle tests, for example, might identify these substances for up to 90 days. These screens, however, are more expensive and may not be as prevalent as urine testing. SAMHSA points out that now, federally regulated programs only collect and test urine.
Can shrooms be found in any drug test?
Magic mushrooms may be detected using specialized or prolonged toxicological testing. But how often are shroom metabolites to show up in the results?
Although the test type and when you ingested the mushrooms may influence the result, a drug test for shrooms is unlikely to disclose anything. Your body is very effective at breaking down and removing the psilocybin present in mushrooms. Within 24 hours, almost all traces of this entheogen are gone.
Do shrooms appear in blood or saliva test?
Most likely, no. Mushrooms are processed too fast by the body for blood or saliva drug tests to detect them, and the detection window is even shorter than urine. Typically, mushrooms persist in blood and saliva for less than 24 hours, with most psilocybin departing between 1-8 hours.
Do shrooms appear in a hair drug test?
Maybe. Hair testing is the sole method for detecting mushrooms after 24 hours. For up to 90 days after consumption, a hair test may reveal substances such as psilocybin. However, due to cost and dependability, urine, blood, and saliva tests are much more popular than hair testing. Hair drug tests are far more costly and often cause false positives, making them more difficult to challenge.
How long do mushrooms remain in the body?
Following ingestion of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the body degrades them into active components such as psilocybin and its active form, psilocin. These molecules affect the brain, causing changes in perception and behaviour.
The whole procedure, however, is quite quick:
Emotional, perceptual, and awareness changes might occur as soon as 20-30 minutes after consumption. The effects may persist for many hours, depending on various variables, including the dosage and the person.
- At the same time, the body starts rapidly digesting the chemicals. The chemicals are excreted by the kidneys and exit the body via urine.
- A drug’s half-life is how long it takes the body to break down or eliminate half of the entire quantity consumed. With this in mind, psilocin has a half-life of 50 minutes.
- Around 66% of the chemicals within three hours are eliminated from the body.
- The chemicals are no longer detectable in urine after 24 hours.
These times may be influenced by a variety of individual characteristics, including:
Dosage: A greater dose may stay in the body longer since it takes longer to break down.
Shroom potency: More strong mushrooms may have more active chemicals, allowing them to remain longer in the body.
Mushroom species: There are several hallucinogenic mushrooms, each with its particular makeup that may influence how long it remains in the body.
Personal tolerability: Taking certain chemicals frequently or in higher doses to get the same effects may lengthen the time it takes for them to exit a person’s system.
Method and format of preparation: How shrooms are prepared, for example, dry or in tea, may impact their potency and subsequent excretion time.
Any meal or drink consumed with the mushrooms: Factors affecting digestion, such as eating mushrooms with other meals or on an empty stomach, may influence how long it takes for them to exit the body.
Metabolism: A person’s metabolism may influence how rapidly chemicals exit the body. Age and body composition are two more characteristics that might affect a person’s metabolism.
Kidney disorders: A kidney with diminished function may take longer to process and eliminate these chemicals.
Conclusion
In general, shrooms and hallucinogens do not appear on standard drug tests. There are, however, specialist hallucinogen tests for these compounds, although they are not widely used.
Testing existing and prospective workers may aid in preventing and detecting workplace drug usage. Marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, methamphetamine, and opioids are the most frequent substances at the foundation of the substance misuse problem.
Shrooms and psilocybin are swiftly broken down and excreted by the body, and most individuals may anticipate the chemicals to be out of their system within a day.
Michael S. Bardwell, an expert in workplace drug testing, specializes in synthetic urine and its impact on drug tests. As a seasoned specimen collector, he navigates the intricate realm of drug testing laboratories certified by the Department of Health and Human Services. His insights extend to drug-free workplace programs, and he collaborates seamlessly with medical review officers (MRO) in ensuring accurate specimen collections for comprehensive drug tests.