How long do shrooms stay in the system
Following ingestion of hallucinogenic mushrooms, the body degrades them into active components such as psilocybin and its active form, psilocin. These molecules have an effect on the brain, causing changes in perception and behavior.
The entire procedure, however, is relatively quick:
- Changes in emotion, perception, and consciousness can start in as little as 20–30 minutes after ingestion. The changes can last for several hours, depending on numerous factors such as the dose and the individual.
- At the same time, the body begins processing the compounds quickly. The kidneys excrete the compounds, which then leave the body in the urine.
- The half-life of a drug is how long it takes the body to break down or excrete half the total amount a person ingests. With this in mind, the half-life of psilocin is 50 minutes.
- About 66% of the compounds get excreted from the body within 3 hours.
- After 24 hours, the compounds are no longer detectable in the urine.
Several individual factors may affect these timings, such as:
- Dosage: A higher dosage may remain in the body for longer as it takes more time to break down.
- Potency of the shrooms: More potent mushrooms may have more active compounds, making them last longer in the body.
- Type of mushrooms: There are a variety of hallucinogenic mushrooms, each with its own composition that may affect how long it stays in the body.
- Personal tolerance level: Taking some compounds regularly or in larger dosages to feel the same effects may increase the time they take to leave a person’s system.
- Preparation method and form: How a person prepares shrooms, for example, dried or in tea, may affect their potency and subsequent excretion time.
- Any food or drink taken with the mushrooms: Factors that affect digestion, such as eating shrooms with other foods or on an empty stomach, may affect the time it takes for them to leave the body.
- Metabolism: An individual’s metabolism may affect how quickly the compounds leave the body. Several other factors may influence a person’s metabolism, such as age and body composition.
- Disorders in the kidney: A kidney with reduced function may take more time to metabolize and excrete these compounds.