A former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officer is taking the agency to federal court after being fired for testing positive for THC that he attributes to legal hemp-derived CBD oil he took for pain relief.
After 15 years as a special agent at DEA, Anthony Armour was terminated in 2019 following a random drug screening that showed a positive result for a THC metabolite. He promptly notified the agency that he believed the result was related to CBD oil that he’d been using as an opioid alternative after hemp and its derivatives were federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.
The agent also voluntarily gave DEA the products he was using, and laboratory analyses showed that two of three contained less than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight, meeting the federal definition of legal hemp. A third product tested at 0.35 percent THC, which is still within the +/- 0.08 percent scientific margin of uncertainty.
Nonetheless, despite Armour’s record as an exemplary employee who worked on opioid trafficking diversion efforts, his complaint says, DEA declined to make any accommodations and maintained the charge of suspicion of use and possession of an illegal controlled substance.
The lawsuit is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where Armour is seeking a reversal of the charge and reinstatement at DEA.
In a filing submitted on Friday, attorneys for the former agent said there are three main reasons why the court should support their request: 1)…
