Magic mushrooms boldly re-entered mainstream conversation, primarily for their promising mental health benefits. However, let’s face it. Indigenous people worldwide have used psilocybin mushrooms for thousands of years to elicit transformative spiritual experiences. So, even though mushrooms might feel like they’re just emerging, they’ve been here all along. These mycelial fungi were just waiting for the right time to ignite your interest.

Now that they have your attention, you might be wondering how to incorporate magic mushrooms into your life without suffering unnecessary consequences. The looming question on your mind may be, will I fail a drug test if I take shrooms?

Do shrooms show up on a drug test?

A lot of confusion surrounds drug tests, especially for magic mushrooms. Common questions include, do mushrooms show up in urine tests, and how long do shrooms stay in the system?

In theory, any substance can show up on a drug test. The reason is that after your body breaks down drugs, it creates residual “metabolites,” or byproducts of those substances. Most drug tests look for these metabolites through one of three standard methods.

• Urine (90% of employers, the most prevalent)
• Saliva (10% of employers and often used by law enforcement)
• Hair (7% of employers)

Although any metabolite could show up on a drug test, the results will only reveal the chemicals it’s designed to test for.

According to Mobile Health, 5-panel drug testing, as used by the federal government, the Department of Transportation, and many private employers, is the industry standard. Called the SAMHSA-5 (which stands for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), this basic, affordable test looks for commonly abused substances in five categories:

1. Methamphetamines (meth, speed, crank, ecstasy)
2. THC (cannabis, marijuana, hash)
3. Cocaine (coke, crack)
4. Opiates (heroin, opium, codeine, morphine)
5. Phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust)

The standard 5-panel drug test—and even 8-, 10, and 12-panel tests—does not test for psilocybin, the chemical that ignites the “magic,” shall we say. For this reason, mushrooms virtually never show up on most drug test analyses. So, if you’re employed by a business that utilizes one of these panels, and your mushrooms are pure, you probably won’t have an issue.

However, keep in mind that occasionally people sell mushrooms mixed with other drugs, such as PCP, that would appear on a test. So, be sure to know your source or grow your own shrooms if possible.

Can shrooms show up in any type of drug test?

Specialized or extended toxicology tests exist that might detect magic mushrooms. But what is the likelihood that shroom metabolites will show up in the results?

Factors such as test type and when you took the mushrooms can affect the outcome, but it’s still unlikely a drug test for shrooms would reveal anything. Your body is highly efficient at breaking down the psilocybin found in mushrooms and eliminating it in a short time. Virtually all traces of this entheogen are gone within 24 hours.

Do mushrooms show up in urine tests?

Usually, no. Although mushrooms do remain in urine in detectable amounts for about one to three days, our bodies eliminate 80% of the active metabolites within 24 hours of use.

Here’s how it works: First, the body breaks down psilocybin into the metabolite, psilocin, to elicit the psychoactive effects. Psilocin then leaves the system through urine. On the one hand, that makes urine most likely where mushrooms on a drug test would show up. But on the other hand, urine tests that look for mushrooms are infrequent and need to be administered rapidly following your mushroom journey to detect them.

Other drug tests for shrooms

In addition to urine, other drug tests for mushrooms include:

• Blood and saliva tests
• Hair tests
• Immunoassay tests

Do shrooms show up on a blood or saliva drug test?

Likely no. The body processes mushrooms too quickly for blood or saliva drug tests to identify them, and the detection window is even shorter than urine. Typically, mushrooms remain in blood and saliva for less than 24 hours, with most of the psilocybin leaving blood and saliva within 1-8 hours.

Do shrooms show up on a hair drug test?

Maybe. Hair testing is the only way to detect mushrooms beyond 24 hours. A hair test can detect drugs, including psilocybin, for up to 90 days after use. However, urine, blood, and saliva tests are significantly more common than hair tests because of cost and reliability. Hair drug tests are substantially more expensive and often produce false positives, making them easier to dispute.

Immunoassay for psilocin in mushrooms

Immunoassays are cheap and straightforward methods to detect minute quantities of substances in various liquids, like blood or urine. Immunoassays look for antibodies to signal the presence of a target compound in a sample. A study in 2004 announced a new blood-serum test to detect psilocin. Immunoassays typically appear in environmental, security, and food settings, not standard human drug testing.

How long do shrooms stay in your system?

Mushrooms generally stay in your system for about one to three days, but this can vary based on the frequency of use, dosage, metabolism, and body fat percentage.

Typically, the gastrointestinal tract absorbs psilocybin about 10 to 30 minutes after consuming mushrooms and quickly transforms it into psilocin. Although your body usually removes psilocin from the system in around five hours, psilocybin can take 15 hours. Again, this can vary from person to person. Studies reveal that a tiny quantity of psilocybin can remain in the body for up to a week. However, it’s uncommon to discover residual mushroom chemicals in your system beyond 24 hours.

How long does it take for shrooms to kick in?

You’ll probably notice the psychedelic effects of mushrooms within 30 to 45 minutes, varying based on mushroom species, how much you consume, and the ingestion method. You can eat mushrooms raw (dried), cooked, or blended with lemon juice or tea. If you’re going the tea or lemon tek method, shrooms can kick in as soon as five to 10 minutes.

How long do shrooms last?

The average mushroom trip lasts between four and six hours, with the peak effects occurring at hour two for most people. However, everyone is different, and the ingestion method matters. Therefore, you might experience effects ranging from two up to eight hours, with an afterglow that persists into the next day.

What factors determine how long mushrooms stay in your system?

Several variables can influence how long mushrooms last and how quickly shrooms leave your system, such as: 

• Mushroom species: There are up to 200 species that contain various compounds in different concentration levels. The more psilocybin in the mushroom, the longer it will stay in your system.
• Consumption method: Raw dried mushrooms and cooked mushroom trips typically last six to eight hours. However, lemon tek and mushroom tea imbibers sometimes report shorter durations, around two to four hours.
• Dosage: Consuming larger doses of psilocybin can prolong a trip. However, the exact dose-to-duration ratio is unclear, as it depends on a host of factors.
• Age: Metabolism, kidney, and liver functions slow down with age. So, shrooms ‌may linger longer in these system‌s.
• Body type: No two bodies process chemicals the same way. BMI, metabolism, and water content vary and affect how long shrooms take to leave your system.
• Stomach particles: The more food in the stomach when you take mushrooms, the slower your digestive system processes them.
• Other compounds: Combining shrooms with other drugs can have unexpected results and affect how long they stay in the body. Even if the shrooms aren’t detected in your drug test, there’s a chance another substance could show up.

How to clear shrooms from your body faster

There is no way to eliminate the psilocin in mushrooms from the body immediately. However, you can try a couple of tried-and-true tricks to speed up the process:

1. Drink plenty of water. The main exit point for psilocin is through urine, so the primary trick to get mushrooms out of your body is to drink water or a diuretic that stimulates urine production. Common diuretics include:

• Dandelion tea
• Green tea
• Coffee
• Horsetail
• Parsely

2. Take herbal bitters or eat bitter foods. The liver converts psilocybin into psilocin before the body flushes it out through urine. Eating bitter foods can stimulate the liver to work faster. Herbal bitters are available at most health food stores.

What impacts metabolizing psilocybin?

Everyone metabolizes psilocybin differently. Even two people of the same gender and age could metabolize psilocybin at different rates. The following factors can influence how long your body will process psilocybin:

• Age: Older people tend to have slower kidney and liver functions.
• Gender: Women secrete less gastric acid and usually have longer gastrointestinal transit times than men.
• General wellbeing: The healthier your body, the faster it can break down psilocybin into metabolites and process it.
• Metabolism: A speedier metabolism can make psilocybin easier to expel through urine.
• Body size and makeup: Obesity can reduce protein binding and tissue blood flow, keeping psilocybin from leaving the body.

The comedown: Do mushrooms show up in drug tests?

The bottom line is that any substance can appear on a drug test, but most standard drug panels don't look for psilocybin or psilocin, the active ingredients in magic mushrooms.

Even if a specific drug test looks for mushrooms, the body eliminates almost all traces of their active compounds from blood, saliva, and urine within about 24 hours. The one exception is a hair test, which can detect most drug use for 90 days.