THC Metabolism Explained: How Our Body Processes and Removes Marijuana

In this video, I'll explain marijuana metabolism. I'll show how our body processes and excretes marijuana and its metabolites.

Possessing this knowledge is extremely important in your understanding of how to detox from marijuana. DELTA-9-THC or THC is the primary psychoactive ingredient of cannabis.

When cannabis is smoked or vaporized, THC enters the bloodstream via absorption through the lungs.
According to a research study, we inhale only about 50% of the THC from the joint.
Approximately 30% of the THC is destroyed by heat.

Other THC is lost through sidestream and incomplete absorption in the lungs.
Therefore, only a part of inhaled THC reaches body circulation due to what is called the first-pass metabolism.

Because of the first-pass metabolism only 25-30% of smoked THC is absorbed into the blood.
Studies have shown that heavy users receive ~25% of the THC available for absorbtion while occasional users get ~12%, the reason being because heavy users smoke more efficiently.
When ingested as edibles, THC enters the bloodstream through the walls of the stomach and intestines.
Tests show that 90-95% of the THC then permeates the blood after ingestion.

THC and some of its metabolites are fat-soluble.
This means that they can dissolve in fats or oils.
THC rapidly penetrates highly vascularized tissues such as the lungs, liver, heart, and body fat.
About 70% of the THC is taken up by tissues, mostly by body fat.

The THC is then slowly released back into the blood.
Through this process, THC is continuously moving from the fat tissues into the blood and back again.

Once in the blood, THC infiltrates the liver and undergoes 2 phases of metabolism.
The CYP2C9 enzyme converts THC to 11-OH-THC in the first phase, after which CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 enzymes convert 11-OH-THC to 11-COOH-THC.

THC metabolites are prepared for excretion in the second phase.
UGT enzymes add a glucuronide molecule to metabolites through a process known as glucuronidation.
11-COOH-THC is metabolized mainly by the UGT1A3 enzyme and forms THC-COO-Gluc.
11-OH-THC is metabolized mainly by UGT1A9 and UGT1A10 enzymes and forms THC-O-Gluc.

The resulting metabolites are soluble in water.

Afterwards, they are dissolved in the bile and water and excreted with the urine and feces.
In the intestines, bacterial enzymes 'remove' glucuronide from most of the THC metabolites.
These metabolites are then reabsorbed back into the blood, where they can begin the entire cycle over again.
This process is called enterohepatic circulation.

One unfortunate aspect of this process is that only about 20% of THC metabolites are excreted with the urine, while 65% are excreted with the feces.
Therefore, most of the THC metabolites will enter the enterohepatic recirculation and return into your blood.
This is why detoxification from marijuana is such a lengthy process.

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0:00 Why it's important to understand marijuana metabolism
0:21 How much THC gets into the blood after smoking
1:18 How much THC gets into the blood after ingestion
1:32 How THC is stored in the body
2:10 Phase 1 of marijuana metabolism
2:34 Phase 2 of marijuana metabolism
3:15 Excretion of THC
3:26 Enterohepatic circulation of THC metabolites
4:07 How to speed up THC detoxification