With alcohol, you feel the effects as you begin drinking. Your body metabolizes it fairly quickly, though. For most people, they would have a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .00 on a breath test the next morning, after the impact of the alcohol fades off. Some who drink heavily could still have it in their system a day later, but that’s the exception, not the rule.
However, don’t assume that marijuana is the same. It can be detected in your system for a long time after you use it and well after you’ve stopped feeling those effects.
For instance, you could take edibles. They may take an hour or two to activate. You may then feel high for a few hours, go to bed and wake up feeling fine again. The marijuana has stopped affecting you and shouldn’t impact your ability to work, drive, etc.
If you take a urine test, though, it may still show up for nearly two weeks, even with light use. If you’re a heavy user, it could show up for 90 days. Urine tests are the most common drug tests, but labs can also do hair tests. For any level of use, marijuana can show up for 90 days in a hair test.
Clearly, marijuana is not going to impact your life two weeks after you take it, but it could have a drastic impact if the results show up in a drug test for work or if you are accused of a drug-related crime — like causing an accident while high — and the test shows that you did use in the past. If you find yourself facing charges, you need to know exactly what steps to take.