Gallbladder surgery and drugs
July 6, 2011 | 20,00 EUR | answered by Dr. med. Ralf Berg
Dear Sir or Madam,
My 20-year-old son was stopped in a routine police check with his car and was tested for drugs. They found THC and amphetamines in his blood. However, he claims that he smoked 2 joints two days before the check and only tried amphetamines once a few days before that. Last year in September, he had his gallbladder removed, and I have heard that if you no longer have a gallbladder, the body takes longer to metabolize these drugs. Is that true?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Sincerely,
A.S.
Thank you for your question.
Due to the good data on the above-mentioned substances, this can be answered precisely:
1. Regarding amphetamine
Although there are various amphetamines (Met- Dexto- Amphetamine) with different strengths and half-lives, most tests can detect the breakdown products of amphetamines, so a half-life of 12 hours is generally assumed. Therefore, detection is possible in the blood for up to 24 hours (up to 48 hours in urine) with sensitive methods. Even after 24 hours, 20% of the substance may still be present, but these remnants are excreted unchanged in the urine, hence a longer detection window there. It is unlikely that this breakdown will be delayed after removal of the gallbladder, and I have not been able to find any relevant publications or findings on this. Ingestion more than 2 days ago is very unlikely due to additional renal elimination (excretion in urine).
2. THC has a much longer half-life of 8 days. Since this substance is not excreted but remains in the body (e.g. in hair), it can still be detected in the blood even after 80 to 90 days with sensitive methods. (for months in hair) There is also no reason to assume that the presence or absence of the gallbladder changes these times, as this substance is not significantly excreted through bile secretions.
You may need to have another longer and trusting conversation with your son.
Lack of a gallbladder does not help here, only in the future:
do not drive yourself after drug use.
Best regards,
Dr. R. C. Berg
