The Process of the Body's Metabolism of Illicit Drugs

[Rehabicable]

To start off, I am aware that the BLUA restricts "asking advice about drug tests" etc, and if this post is too closely related then by all means take it down.
I am simply interested in the science behind how are bodies eliminate drugs from it's system. I have done a large amount of research on this subject and there are loads of conflicting information.
I know that drugs are, to simplify, broken down by enzymes/the kidneys into metabolites which are then excreted through our urine, hair, saliva, sweat etc. Hence drug tests look for these metabolites.
I know this process is affected by numerous variables including height, weight, age, your body's metabolic efficiency etc. What I am wondering and have had lots of experience with is whether increasing the amount of excretion actually eliminates the drug's metabolites faster. Obviously there are substances that are fat soluble however my experience/observations/curiosity has to do with polar compounds (water soluble) and the constant flushing of water through the system and if the amount of urine and sweat the body excretes quickens the process or if it is solely governed by your kidneys working and your enzymes working. Obviously this subject is related to drug tests however I am not asking for advice just looking for well informed people who may know the body's inner workings better than me because the web is filled with so many "experts" who all contradict each other.
Thank you for reading sorry for the length of post.

 

[nAON]

Short answer - yes, drinking water will make drugs exit your system faster, if they are mostly polar. However, you have to consider that effectively your entire body is an amalgamation of compartments totalling about 50L of water. Even if you drink/piss a lot, say 2.5L, that is still just 5% of the drug/metabolites thats been distributed that has been cleared (more complex than that of course, drugs don't distribute equally, various types of solubility and tissue etc., but think the point still stands).

 

[serotonin2A]

Short answer - yes, drinking water will make drugs exit your system faster, if they are mostly polar. However, you have to consider that effectively your entire body is an amalgamation of compartments totalling about 50L of water. Even if you drink/piss a lot, say 2.5L, that is still just 5% of the drug/metabolites thats been distributed that has been cleared (more complex than that of course, drugs don't distribute equally, various types of solubility and tissue etc., but think the point still stands).

I've never heard of any situation where ingesting a large amount of water makes any significant difference in drug duration. Increasing the amount of drug excreted by drinking lots of water also increases the amount of electrolytes that are excreted -- it is a good way to induce water intoxication and death.

 

[Rehabicable]

I've never heard of any situation where ingesting a large amount of water makes any significant difference in drug duration. Increasing the amount of drug excreted by drinking lots of water also increases the amount of electrolytes that are excreted -- it is a good way to induce water intoxication and death.

I didn't mean the duration of the drug's effects but it's actual presence in your bloodstream which lasts for sometimes much longer than the intoxication itself.

Of course this is a risk and the flushing process would have to be done carefully, I read somewhere that you can safely handle about a litre an hour before it becomes dangerous. I was asking this because I read alot of people saying online that the amount of excretion doesn't matter and that your kidneys will break down the drug in a set amount of time obviously determined by aforementioned variables no matter what you do.

 

[Foreigner]

I think you're confusing kidneys with liver.

Any drug you take goes through the CYP450 system, which is governed by the liver. Those liver enzymes determine the speed with which the whole drug is initially metabolized. If there is substrate impairment genetically, then the active drug may last in your system way longer than normal. In slower metabolizers, they will exhibit drug metabolites in the blood stream a lot longer because the initial breakdown of the drug took longer, due to the status of the enzyme pathways. This means that people with slower metabolisms are at risk of testing positive on drug tests for a lot longer than rapid metabolizers.

Drinking water will not affect the rate of metabolite excretion by the kidneys. All excess water does is dilute the blood serum of the body, which the kidneys selectively excrete, just like they would excess salt, or whatever else. The only way water would help the situation is if dehydration is a factor in clearance, i.e. the person has been getting high and not drinking any water, so kidney excretion in general is being impaired. Otherwise, metabolites follow their own biochemical process, independent of that. It also depends on which drug metabolite we're talking about. If it's at all fat soluble, that will greatly increase the clearance time. If it's water soluble, perhaps not.