As with most morphine side effects, the pain relief from morphine usually wears off within 4–6 hours. Sometimes it may be in the blood for 1.5 to 4.5 hours and in the urine for 12 to 36 hours still.
 

Morphine is a strong opioid that can reduce pain, make you drowsy, and in some people can make you feel happy. It may be very addictive.

The number of deaths from opioid overdoses in the United States has increased between 1999 and 2018 Trusted Source Trusted Source, nearly 450,000 people died, including from morphine overdoses. It's also true that some people who become addicted to morphine later take other street drugs, especially heroin.
 

It appears that morphine withdrawal symptoms get worse as the drug leaves your system if you are trying to quit using morphine.
 

People taking drug tests in the workplace might fear a positive test and mothers breast feeding might wonder how long their drug is in their breast milk.
 

The rate at which morphine leaves a person’s body depends on many different factors, including how much a person takes, metabolism, age, body size and overall health. Read on to learn more.
 

Effects
 

The effects of morphine include:

• pain relief
• sleepiness
• changes in mood and behavior
• euphoric, well or good feelings.
• Side effects
   

The side effects of morphine include:

• slowed breathing
• changes in the heart rate
• low blood pressure

It could involve stomach pain such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.

Morphine induces side effects that may also affect people taking it in some other way. Then there have been morphine injections that could cause pain or irritation from the site of injection.

Tolerance is one of the most common side effects of morphine. If the person’s tolerance to the drug builds, they will require more morphine (or whatever it is) in order to obtain the same results they were once able to get with less.
 

Morphine dependence and addiction come if people continue to use morphine.
 

An addiction to morphine can lead to extreme need for that drug; sometimes, between doses, especially if you're prescribed morphine for pain other than that from a broken bone, you may have intense cravings, or you may feel flat without the drug.

Timeline of effects

The length of the morphine timeline varies depending on how a person takes it, how much of it they take and whether they have built up a tolerance to it.

Morphine that is administered in a shot does relieve pain within 5–20 minutes. Pain relief really reaches its peak 60 minutes after injection and ceases about 3 to 4 hours later. All other effects on the drug are for the most part the same as this one.

Morphine that is taken orally takes a bit longer to work but pain relief peaks after about 60 minutes later. The pain relief and most other side effects wear off in 4–6 hours.

For how long does morphine stay in the system? 

Morphine metabolites stay in the body even after a person no longer experiences the drug’s effects.
 

When people are tested for morphine, they should ask whether or not the test is sensitive. The more sensitive the test is, the greater it will be at detecting morphine. False positives may also be produced, as highly sensitive tests.

Blood

Other tests are more slow, so blood tests for morphine are often negative faster than other tests. This is because morphine will peak in your blood within 1 hour, or so, after use.

The drug is quickly metabolized by the body and the half life, how long it takes for your body to metabolize half of the dose, is only about 1.5 – 4.5 hours.
 

Because the half life length of morphine, it will usually be out of the blood within a few hours, and a blood test will usually be negative within one or two days at the very least.
 

Urine

Morphine leaves excrement quickly. This is particularly true if the last dose was large sized and if the person has a high metabolism and regular consumption of water, etc.; it’s usually negative in a urine sample within 12–36 hoursTrusted Source.
 

Urine morphine samples are very sensitive and test for all opioids. False positives are common. ThereTrusted Source is some evidence that even a single poppy seed will trigger a positive test result.
 

Breast milk

How much morphine enters breast milk and how long it stays there depends on how much morphine you're taking and other factors.

For example, when lactating mothers received morphine in an epidural, we found that concentrations of drug reached peak values 30 minutesTrusted Source after the last drug dose. In milk, the half life was 3 hours.
 

There was another study of womem women given morphine in their epidurals and how much morphine showed up in their breast milk at different time intervals. The dose resulted in highest morphine concentrations 3.2 hoursTrusted Source after administration. After 24 hours, however, there was no detectable morphine in the milk.

But if a woman is breastfeeding, she should discuss with her doctor the safety of any use of morphine while breastfeeding.

Hair

Morphine stays in the hair the longest. Hair grows and you may not have evidence of morphine use with new hair, but old hair does: if there was morphine use on some kind of ongoing basis.

Hair samples indicate that morphine is detectable in the hair 90 days after someone stops using it, and 2016 study.
 

Withdrawal

The amount of time it takes to withdraw from morphine depends on several factors, including:
 

• How quickly or if a person stops using.
• the frequency of which a person uses morphine
• the size of the last morphine dose.

Each time a person would normally take morphine, withdrawal symptoms begin around the same time and become worse over several hours.

Withdrawal symptoms peak in a few days. At this point, your physical withdrawal symptoms should improve but your psychological cravings can take much longer — often months or even years.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides help with addiction and withdrawal.
 

The SAMHSA National Helpline can be called by anyone at any time on 1-800-662-HELP-(4357). It is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365 day a year line.

Summary

How long morphine remains in a person’s system depends, in part, on when they measure its presence and how long it’s been in the body.

Withdrawal from morphine persists long after morphine is completely out of the body — people may feel cravings and hallucinations associated with morphine use for several days.
 

For those worried about morphine levels in the body, those wondering whether to stop morphine or those breastfeeding a baby or young child, a doctor should be consulted for guidance.