Flo asked
How long does Xanax (Alprazolam) stay in your system for?
Answer
Although Xanax (Alprazolam) is rapidly absorbed and has a quick onset of action, it lasts a good amount of time in the body. It has a half life of around 11.2 hours, meaning that it takes 11.2 hours for 50% of the drug to be metabolized in the body. 11.2 is really just an average and the half life can range anywhere from 6 hours to 27 hours depending on the individual. In terms of detection on a drug test, it depends on how sensitive the drug test is. The general rule of thumb is that it takes around 6 half lives for a drug to become undetectable on a standard drug test. If we use 11.2 hours as our standard, that comes out to 67.2 hours, or 2.8 days. If we are going with a half life of 27 hours, the drug would be detectable for about 6.75 days.
So, although it is tough to give an exact time frame, Xanax (Alprazolam) is generally detectable for about 3-7 days depending on the individual.
Many people ask if they can "flush" their bodies out by drinking lots of water. While this may help slightly, there won't be much improvement on detection time. This is due to the fact that Xanax is highly protein bound meaning that the drug clings to protein in the blood plasma. Bound drug is let off or released in a fairly controlled way and the amount of water intake would have little bearing on it.
