How Long Does Norco Stay in Your System? Detection & Half-Life Explained

The opioid epidemic has claimed the lives of nearly a million Americans since 1999 and prescription medications like hydrocodone have played a major role in overdose deaths.

“Norco,” developed by Actavis Pharma, Inc., is the brand name of a drug combining hydrocodone and acetaminophen and a strong pain-relieving medication. It’s used in medical settings when other opioid medications don’t provide the pain relief the patient needs or if they can’t tolerate other painkiller medications used in treatments.

Like all hydrocodone medications, Norco has the potential for misuse and abuse, mainly due to the inclusion of hydrocodone in the formula. Acetaminophen is a well-known pain killer and anti-pyretic used to reduce fever and pain in patients, but unlike Hydrocodone, it isn’t habit forming.

Norco is available in tablet form, in doses of 325 mg of acetaminophen and options for 2.5 mg, 5 mg, 7.5 mg, or 10 mg of hydrocodone. The FDA regulates these combination drugs and tightly controls the amount of acetaminophen in the formula as doses larger than 325mg may cause liver damage in the user.

The FDA and DEA are responsible for scheduling drugs on the American market and Norco is registered as a Schedule II controlled substance due to its potential for misuse and abuse. That’s important to note because studies show around 21% to 29% of people prescribed Norco end up misusing or abusing the drug. Despite the risks associated with the drug, it’s in the top 15 drugs prescribed by doctors in America, with more than 10 million prescriptions filled annually.

The FDA announced it was removing brand named hydrocodone/acetaminophen formulations like Norco, Vicodin, and Lortab from the market. Ironically, the organization didn’t make this decision in response to the rising overdose deaths across the country as the opioid epidemic spread.

Instead, the order came from the FDAs concern that this combination could lead to liver damage in users. Today, “Norco” isn’t available in pharmacies. Instead, patients must opt for generic formulations of these drugs. For the purposes of this article, we’ll refer to the generic by the brand name, Norco.

The drug is currently under restricted distribution through the “Opioid Analgesic REMS” (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) program. It’s occasionally used to treat Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) when other drugs aren’t available or not suitable for medical detox programs.

How Long Does Norco Last in Your System?

A single dose of Norco, regardless if it’s the 2.5mg or 10mg hydrocodone version, lasts for four to six hours. That’s the ideal scenario, but certain factors can extend or curtail its efficacy. For instance, eating a heavy meal before taking a dose will take longer for the drug to become active, and the patient might not feel its full effect, compared to if they took the drug on an empty stomach. We’ll get into these efficacy factors a little later in this post.

Norco hydrocodone “metabolites” (trace amounts of the drug) are present in your system for between two to four days. The acetaminophen in the formula can show up in drug tests for one to two days after your last dose.

Let’s examine the detection times for Norco in blood, urine, hair, and saliva.

Norco Detection Times in Urine

Norco metabolites will show up in urine samples for up to three days after your last dose. The urine test is the gold standard for the drug as it has the longest detection time after hair follicles, and it’s less expensive, and more widely adopted, than using a hair follicle test.

Norco Detection Times in Blood

Norco metabolites will be present in blood samples for a much shorter time, typically for 24 hours after taking your last dose. While incredibly effective, the invasive nature and high cost of running blood tests mean they usually take a backseat to urine testing.

Norco Detection Times in Hair

A hair follicle test involves the extraction of a hair sample at least 1.5 inches in length, including the follicle. This method has the longest detection time for Norco metabolites, picking up the presence of the drug for up to three months from your last dose. The expense of these tests means that urine samples are preferred over this method.

Norco Detection Times in Saliva

Norco metabolites are present in saliva samples for up to 36-hours after taking your last dose. Law enforcement prioritize this method of testing due to it being cheap and effective.

Norco Mechanism of Action

As with any opioid medication, Norco works by mimicking the natural endorphins your body produces, thus helping alleviate pain.

This drug alters your response to pain by binding to opioid receptors in the central nervous system and preventing the brain from receiving pain signals from the body.

At the same time, Norco also interacts with your brain’s reward system, releasing dopamine and inducing euphoric feelings and deep relaxation.

Since people are naturally hardwired to chase a dopamine rush, this is one of the reasons why opioids, including Norco, can be very addictive.

Norco’s pain-relieving and euphoric effects aren’t immediate. It takes between 10 and 30 minutes for the drug to start working, as it only enters your bloodstream after being digested.

That said, it may take up to an hour for Norco’s effects to peak, and they usually subside within eight hours following ingestion.

Half-Life of Norco

Every medication and illicit drug have a “half-life.” This metric is a measurement of how long it takes for half of the dose to be eliminated from your system and it takes around five to six half-lives to completely eliminate the presence of any drug in your body.

The hydrocodone component of Norco has an average half-life of 3.3. to 4.4 hours and a “terminal” half-life of 3.8 hours.

It takes hydrocodone around 20 to 30 minutes to reach active concentration levels in the bloodstream where it starts to induce its analgesic effect. The drug lasts around four to eight hours, depending on the factors we mentioned earlier.

Oral acetaminophen preparations have a half-life of 1.25 to 3 hours, reaching peak serum concentrations within 10 minutes to an hour after taking Norco.

Factors Influencing How Long Norco Stays in Your System

Health problems, such as liver dysfunction may influence the clearance time of Norco from your body, and the speed of its onset. Since acetaminophen is liver toxic, especially at doses found in Norco (325mg), doctors are unlikely to recommend it for treatment in individuals with liver trouble.

Hydrocodone and acetaminophen rely on the liver to break down the metabolites and clear the drug from your system. Patients with a dysfunctional liver tend to experience higher peak concentrations of Norco in the blood and longer clearance times.

As we age, our metabolism slows down, and that affects the clearance time of medications from the body. Also, the longer the patient stays on the drug, the higher the concentrations of metabolites in their system and the longer it takes to completely clear the drug from their system.

The patient’s BMI also plays a role in clearance times, since body fat cells store metabolites and excrete them at a slower pace, increasing clearance times. In rare instances, gene mutations can cause longer clearance times in some patients.

Norco and Drug Interactions

When a doctor assesses you for treatment they’ll ask you if you’re currently using any other medications—and that’s for good reason. Norco interacts with many other prescription and non-prescription drugs, and these interactions could cause serious adverse effects when you take a cocktail of pharmaceuticals.

Norco interacts with dozens of other medications, and there are too many to list here. But some of the medications you should never combine with Norco include opioid agonist/antagonists such as nalbuphine, butorphanol, naltrexone, pentazocine, and samidorphan.

Opioid medications like oxycodone and codeine should never be combined with Norco due to the potential for overdose in the patient. You’re also asking for trouble if you combine cannabis use or alcohol with Norco, or benzodiazepines like Alprazolam (Xanax) and lorazepam.

Avoid combining Norco with “Z-drug” sleeping medications like Zopiclone or Zolpidem, muscle relaxants like cyclobenzaprine and carisoprodol, and antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine and cetirizine.

Norco vs. Vicodin

Both Norco and Vicodin are no longer available in the United States as brand name medications. They are now solely available as generic drugs (hydrocodone/APAP or hydrocodone/acetaminophen). Both Vicodin and Norco contain acetaminophen and hydrocodone, but with different concentrations of acetaminophen.

The generic version of Norco features 325mg of acetaminophen, while Vicodin contains 300mg. According to the FDA, the safety limit per dose is 325mg of the drug. Patients who regularly consume more than 4,000mg per day are likely to experience liver damage.

These drugs are not meant to be long-term analgesic solutions to pain problems. They are for short-term use only to help the patient overcome the pain symptoms associated with severe injuries or surgery. Remaining on the drug for longer than a week, which is already an extensive use period, opens the door to dependency on Norco, and the possibility of addiction to the drug.

What is the Risk for Norco Addiction?

Hydrocodone, along with oxycodone, are the primary drugs involved in the development of the “opioid crisis” in America. While these prescription medications have fallen out of favor with addicts since the introduction of fentanyl on the black market somewhere around 2015, it’s still a highly misused and abused drug.

It doesn’t take much of the drug to get hooked on Norco. Even following the dosing directions from your doctor could be enough to spark the seed of addiction in your mind and body. Since Norco is relatively hard to find on the black market, people addicted to the drug may turn to other solutions, such as fentanyl, to ease their withdrawal symptoms and continue their opioid dependency.

Doctors only prescribe Norco generics for around  week to ten days at most, unless the patient is dealing with extreme chronic pain symptoms. Norco generics build tolerance quickly in the user and they’ll need to continually up their dose to feel the same effects if they stay on it long-term or abuse it for several months.

The liver toxicity associated with acetaminophen means that Norco can cause severe liver damage when misused or abused, especially alongside other substances like alcohol and other liver-toxic drugs.

It’s possible to enter “respiratory depression” if you take too much of the drug. This effect is characterized by shallow, slow breathing—and if left untreated—the patient could stop breathing and perish. EMTs will use Naloxone (brand name “Narcan”) to reverse the overdose. Naloxone binds to the opioid receptors in the brain and body, immediately reversing the overdose.

Is Norco Used in AWS Recovery?

Norco is one of the most abused opioids in America, and many addicts who enter recovery programs are either using the drug in combination with other substances, like alcohol or stimulants.

So, it’s not common to see Norco used in MAT programs run by recovery clinics. Besides the abuse factor, Norco’s short half-life doesn’t make it an ideal solution for medically assisted treatments.

Rehab centers prefer to use longer-lasting benzodiazepines like diazepam (Valium) when treating patients for AUD and SUD.

How Long Does Norco Last In Your System—Key Takeaways

• Norco has a half life of up to 4 to 6 hours.
• Norco metabolites can stay in your system for up to 1.5 months (in hair follicle samples). The more common urine testing for the drug detects Norco metabolites for up to three days from your last dose.
• Norco is an opioid “analgesic” (pain relieving) drug with massive potential for misuse and abuse.
• The drug is similar to Vicodin and contains a combination of hydrocodone and acetaminophen.
• Both Norco and Vicodin are no longer available under these brand names in the US, they are only available as generic medications.
• Norco is a “Schedule II” medication regulated by the FDA and DEA.
• Norco is one of the most abused prescription medications in the United States and therefore, it’s not commonly used in AUD and SUD medical detox programs, in favor of longer-lasting benzodiazepine medications, like Valium.