These days, people are consuming raw cannabis by adding it to smoothies or salads. Why? As it turns out, cannabis offers a plethora of essential oils, terpenes, flavonoids, cannabinoid acids and vitamins that can have a plethora of dietary benefits. Sometimes though, people are eating raw weed for this reason. Some have tried to down a gram of weed after being stopped by police, or perhaps they’re too broke for rolling papers so they eat the weed instead. If any of this sounds like you, you may think that eating raw weed is a good way to avoid it showing up on a drug test. Well, think again.

The two cannabinoid acids that have been studied the most are THCa and CBDa. These are activated through the heating process via smoking, vaping or cooking cannabis. Eating raw cannabis allows you to skip the process of decarboxylation or decarbing, which activates THC and gets you high.

Some say that a urinalysis measures the psychoactive cannabinoid metabolites only, however raw cannabis still contains THCa, which means that it can still be detected by your standard urinalysis as well as in blood and hair tests.

Urine tests, which account for more than 75% of drug tests performed, detect the presence of the cannabis metabolite THC-OOOH in the system. So, regardless as to whether someone was actually impaired as a result of decarbing, THCa from raw cannabis is still metabolized within the body and can lead to positive drug test results.

California Norml says that,

Urine tests detect non-psychoactive marijuana metabolites for days to weeks after use, long after impairment has passed.

Urine tests do not detect the psychoactive component in marijuana, THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), and therefore in no way measure impairment.

There’s little research how much cannabis one should eat and its relation to drug test results. The only good news we can offer is if you’ve eaten cannabis within 1-4 hours prior to your test and you had been clean beforehand, there’s a chance that the metabolites haven’t had time to reach your urine yet.

But if you’ve eaten raw weed within the days leading up to the test, chances are it’ll show up in your system. So, your best bet is to not eat raw cannabis in advance of a drug test. If you have, try common detox measures like drinking water and getting plenty of exercise to burn fat and speed up your metabolism.