Kratom is an increasingly popular botanical supplement derived from the leaves of the South East Asian kratom tree.
This herb has a plethora of benefits for its users, from pain relief to energy boosting/stimulant effects. Kratom has been known to improve focus, mental clarity, reduce anxiety and improve feelings of depression among users.
All that in mind, many kratom users want to know if kratom is a substance that can be detected in a drug test, specifically a workplace drug screening. In this article, we will cover kratom drug tests, detection time of kratom in one’s system, and the effect kratom has on a user’s brain.
Workplace Drug Test for Kratom
Kratom contains alkaloids that bind to opioid receptors in the brain. However, they are not structurally related to opiate drugs – therefore they are not detectable through opiate drug tests (or drug tests that test for opiates).
In the workplace, required standard drug test panels only test for cannabinoids, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates and PCP (SAMHSA 5). If an employer finds a reason to believe that an employee may be misusing kratom in a way that is affecting their ability to work and/or their productivity levels, that employer may request a kratom drug test be taken by said employee. Although kratom is legal in the U.S., your employer does have the right to have you tested if he/she feels you are a danger to yourself or the workplace.
Kratom Drug Test Screening & Detection Time
When it comes to drug screening, the “cut-off level” refers to the minimum amount of drug residue that must be found within a sample in order for the test to display a “positive” result. It’s important to remember that a negative drug test doesn’t necessarily mean that it is completely drug-free, only that the concentration of any given substance is below the established “cut-off”.
In a urine drug test for kratom, the cut-off level is 1 ng/ml (test method – LC-MS/MS).
- Urine Drug Test for Kratom – The average high-dose user takes approx. 5.3 days to completely flush out kratom alkaloids from their system, trace quantities of metabolites can be detectable in the kratom user’s urine for up to a full week.
- Blood Drug Test for Kratom – Kratom and kratom metabolites are detectable in a user’s blood stream for the first 24 hours of ingestion. For high-dose and/or frequent kratom users, the metabolites may be traceable in their blood for up to several days.
