With today’s high-potency products and increasingly frequent recreational use, researchers are discovering that the body’s relationship with cannabis has fundamentally changed—and the long-term effects of accumulation are only beginning to come into focus.
A Different Kind of Substance
THC behaves unlike most substances the body encounters. While many drugs are processed and eliminated within hours, THC takes a different path. After inhalation or ingestion, THC enters the bloodstream quickly and is distributed to the organs.
“Regular cannabis use leads to accumulation of lipophilic substances in fat stores and highly vascularized organs such as the brain and liver,” Dr. Ella Fedonenko, an internal medicine physician, told The Epoch Times. “These substances are released back into the bloodstream very slowly, even when standard screening tests are negative.”
In other words, standard drug tests measure THC metabolites in blood or urine, not what remains stored in tissues. A negative test doesn’t mean the substance—or its effects—are gone.
A widely cited review by Marilyn Huestis, who has a doctorate in toxicology and is a former chief of chemistry and drug metabolism at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found that THC spreads quickly into tissues throughout the body rather than staying in the bloodstream, where it can be detected and measured.
