I quit smoking the end of June. Before that I only smoked about a pack a week. This weekend I smoked 4 cigarettes. I'm getting a blood test in the fall to test for nicotine. Will I be ok or should I try to cleanse my system? I'm also around secondhand smoke. Nicotine is a short-acting drug that is eliminated from the body relatively quickly (i.e., within a day or so). However, the effects of acute nicotine withdrawal can be felt for as much as two weeks or more. In addition, the byproducts of nicotine can be detected in the blood for up to a month after you stop smoking. This is only of concern if you are in a situation where someone else might want to test you for the presence of nicotine or nicotine byproducts in your system. It most certainly will be in your blood and there's nothing you can do about it...stop smoking! (I did!) | 