DEA Re-Hires Agent Who Was Fired for Taking CBD

The Ministry of Justice canceled The DEA's decision to fire a special agent fired after testing positive for CBD.

DEA Special Agent Anthony L. Armor has been rehired as a special agent and will be reimbursed for back pay and legal fees after a years-long legal battle dating back to 2019, when a routine drug test revealed he used CBD. is what happened. The armor kept in court was intended to treat chronic pain as an alternative to highly addictive opioid-based painkillers.

“I'm excited to get back to work at the DEA,” Armor said. new york times. “I look forward to finishing my career at the DEA by assisting in its mission to keep dangerous drugs like fentanyl off the streets.”

Armor's struggle with chronic pain dates back to an injury he suffered during his college football career. He was also injured in a car accident while on a surveillance mission while working as a DEA agent, and subsequently suffered from back pain and a sprained neck. He ordered CBD products and vaporizers online, under the impression that he wasn't running any illegal risks since the federal government legalized hemp products with the 2018 Farm Bill.

“For Armor and many other companies in this country, this change meant new opportunities, particularly with respect to CBD, the non-THC cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant,” the lawsuit states in part. “Mr. Armor expected CBD oil to play a role in pain management. It's no surprise that he did it. From Martha Stewart to Wrigley Field, CBD has become a part of American culture. It is incorporated into.”

After failing a drug test, Agent Armor gave his superiors the CBD products he had ordered. Under federal law, hemp-derived products are defined as such if they contain less than 0.3% THC (if you want more information about the cluster of loopholes the Farm Bill created regarding hemp-derived cannabis, see these Please follow the helpful and kind little hyperlinks for )products). Of his three different hemp-based products submitted by Agent Armor, court documents Two of them tested within the range of 0.3% for THC, while one of them showed that it tested above the permissible threshold of 0.35%. This may be due to the notoriously low reliability of hemp products and the way they are tested.

The DEA went as far as doubling down on its ruling in late August 2023, many years after the lawsuit was filed. Days before the Department of Health and Human Services formally recommended changes to the federal marijuana ban schedule, the DEA filed a court brief defending Agent Armor's termination. Schedule 1 to Schedule 3. The DEA also issued an official notice to all DEA employees to avoid all her CBD products after Armor's termination, despite her federal legal status.

“Mr. Armor was an outstanding Drug Enforcement Administration agent when he took the opportunity in 2019. He believed that CBD products were less likely to result in a positive marijuana test, but the “I purchased and consumed these unregulated products over the Internet knowing that this was a possibility. Regardless,” the DEA brief said. “Mr. Armor claims he “demonstrated negligent or poor decision-making” and that the DEA properly held him accountable for his poor decisions when he tested positive for drugs. he claimed. The DEA lost confidence in Mr. Armor and properly removed him. ”

Despite a years-long fight to have Agent Armor removed from the payroll, the Drug Enforcement Administration reinstated him and waived his back pay, according to The New York Times, which obtained a copy of a court filing earlier this month. and agreed to pay $470,000 in legal costs. Agent Armor told the New York Times that while he still believes there is value in using CBD for pain management, he plans to consult a medical professional about viable alternatives once he returns to work. Ta.

“Federal drug testing policy, and importantly, the way we think about drug testing, has not kept up with the times. I am not the only law enforcement officer who has turned to legal cannabis products to combat this,'' Agent Armor said in court testimony in September. “No one should have to choose between enduring pain and serving their country.”