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Anthony Armour wants his job at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) back. But after\u00a0being fired for testing positive for THC that he attributes to federally legal CBD products<\/a>, his legal fight for reinstatement is causing significant financial hardship\u2014and now he\u2019s turning to the public for help.<\/p>\n Described by DEA as an \u201coutstanding\u201d special agent during his 16-year tenure, Armour was ultimately terminated by the agency in 2019 following a random drug screening that revealed traces of THC metabolites. He admitted to taking CBD for chronic pain as an opioid alternative\u2014and he turned over the products he believed to be federally legal under the 2018 Farm Bill\u2014but DEA upheld his firing even upon appeal.<\/p>\n \u201cI enjoyed what I did. I love what I did,\u201d Armour told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Tuesday. \u201cThe whole thing\u2014I\u2019m really just disappointed in the route that they took.\u201d<\/p>\n The Farm Bill that legalized hemp and its derivatives like CBD containing up to 0.3 percent THC by dry weight has forced many federal agencies to reconcile their workplace drug policies. That includes DEA\u2014but the departmental guidance only came after the former agent was terminated<\/a>, which is noted in a briefing his attorneys filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in May.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a costly case years in the making. Armour, who said he continues to use CBD while unemployed because, while he doesn\u2019t consider it a \u201cmiracle drug,\u201d the non-intoxicating cannabinoid has resulted in a \u201csignificant improvement in my overall well-being with the medical issues that I\u2019ve had.\u201d It\u2019s also allowed him to manage pain without resorting to addictive opioids, the illicit trafficking of which he spent much of his career working to combat.<\/p>\n Faced with \u201cout of this world\u201d legal fees, ineligibility for unemployment benefits due to the \u201cfor cause\u201d nature of his firing and difficulties securing work in his field, the former DEA agent said that he\u2019s maxed out his credit cards to make ends meet, with his previously \u201cperfect\u201d credit scores dropping to the \u201cpoor\u201d range. He started a GoFundMe campaign<\/a> last week to raise money to help cover the costs of litigation and basic expenses.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a short stint of employment, but it was contract work so that didn\u2019t last long. I\u2019ve been trying to just get back on my feet,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing in a position like this is, especially given the nature of my job, I\u2019m not out there. I don\u2019t have social media. I don\u2019t use social media. So just telling my story, you\u2019ve got to be vulnerable. And it was the last thing I want to do because that\u2019s the kind of person I am.\u201d<\/p>\n Armour has emphasized that his problem isn\u2019t with DEA as an institution. He recognizes that there are many who use cannabis who hold deep resentment with the agency given its historic role in enforcing criminalization\u2014and while he hopes to return to work there, he agrees that the laws around cannabis need to fundamentally change.<\/p>\n \u201cI support legalization. I support common sense legislation,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd, obviously, the science backing legalization is there, and it\u2019s just been ignored this entire time. Thankfully, we have people that are able to bring the issue to light and educate a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n He also wants people to know\u2014particularly critics who might be skeptical about sympathizing with a former DEA special agent\u2014that, from his perspective, \u201claw enforcement, public service, is really no different from any other job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe rules that I have to follow,\u201d he said, \u201cand my job, obviously, as an agent was to enforce the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Which I did, and I didn\u2019t violate that.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet it was the CSA, and the use of an ostensibly legal product that contained more THC than he intended to consume, that cost Armour his job. It was an attempt to relieve chronic pain with a natural product that evidently crossed the threshold from permissible (albeit loosely regulated) hemp extract to Schedule I marijuana.<\/p>\n DEA is actively reviewing the federal scheduling status of cannabis under a directive from President Joe Biden last year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has already completed its part of the review, concluding that marijuana should be moved to the less restrictive, but still illegal, Schedule III of the CSA. But DEA makes the final call.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what to think about that. You just really don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d Armour said of the agency\u2019s review. \u201cWhat I do know is what CBD did for me. It improved my life and my ailments greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, the career law enforcement official said that he\u2019d forgo CBD if he was allowed to return to DEA.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what the latest policy is, but I plan to follow the policy of the agency,\u201d he said. Asked what that would mean for his health, Armour said it was a good question. \u201cI\u2019ll have to find some alternative treatments,\u201d he said hesitantly, acknowledging that he remains unwilling to use opioids and gastrointestinal issues limit his ability to consistently take over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen.<\/p>\n \u201cMy case is bringing light to it. I remain optimistic that that [the circuit court] would rule in my favor,\u201d he said. And his hopes is that would \u201cbring change to some of the legislation that we have ongoing right now\u2014some of the antiquated legislation we have.\u201d<\/p>\n DEA, for its part, said in a response briefing last month that the former agent\u2019s challenges to the termination are \u201cwithout merit and improperly invite the Court to ignore well-established Federal drug policies<\/a> and to reweigh the evidence in contravention of the standard of review.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Armour was an outstanding DEA agent when he took a chance in 2019. He believed it was unlikely that CBD products would cause him to test positive for marijuana, but he knew it was possible, and he bought those unregulated products on the internet and consumed them anyway,\u201d DEA attorneys said. \u201cMr. Armour argues that he \u2018displayed negligence or poor decision-making,\u2019 and DEA properly held him accountable for his poor decisions when they resulted in a verified positive drug test. DEA lost trust in Mr. Armour and properly removed him.\u201d<\/p>\n DEA acknowledged that Armour may not have intended to use an illegal drug, but said that because he knew the product contained at least trace amounts of THC, the consumption was \u201creckless\u201d and warranted removal.<\/p>\n Notably, the agency relied on a Reagan-era executive order to define an \u201cillegal drug,\u201d which is any Schedule I or Schedule II controlled substance that is not prescribed. Attorneys have raised questions as to whether federal employees like Armour would\u00a0continue to face such penalties for marijuana if it\u2019s moved to Schedule III<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Meanwhile, a top health agency recently revised federal workplace drug testing guidelines<\/a> to clarify that using medical marijuana under a doctor\u2019s recommendation in a legal state is not a valid excuse\u00a0for a positive THC test.<\/p>\n At the congressional level, lawmakers have worked multiple angles in recent legislation to try and provide protections for workers and job applicants against being penalized solely due to cannabis.<\/p>\n For example, people working in the climate sector\u00a0would be protected from being fired for testing positive for marijuana<\/a>\u00a0if they\u2019re based in a legal state under a newly refiled bill from more than 40 congressional Democrats.<\/p>\n The House Rules Committee has repeatedly blocked attempts by lawmakers to\u00a0end the practice of drug testing federal job applicants for marijuana<\/a>\u00a0as part of large-scale spending bills this session.<\/p>\n Over in the Senate, however, members passed defense legislation in July that contains provisions to bar intelligence agencies like the CIA and NSA from\u00a0denying security clearances to applicants solely due to their past marijuana<\/a>\u00a0use.<\/p>\n The House Oversight and Accountability Committee also passed a standalone bipartisan bill last month that would\u00a0prevent the denial of federal employment or security clearances based on a candidate\u2019s past marijuana use<\/a>.<\/p>\n New Hampshire Marijuana Legalization Commission Begins Workshopping Draft Legislation That\u2019s Due On December 1<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Former DEA Agent Fired Over Positive THC Test From CBD Products Solicits Public Support As Legal Fees Mount To Challenge Agency\u2019s Action<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Anthony Armour wants his job at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) back. But after\u00a0being fired for testing positive for THC that he attributes to federally legal CBD products, his legal fight for reinstatement is causing significant financial hardship\u2014and now he\u2019s turning to the public for help. Described by DEA asContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":69608,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69609,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69607\/revisions\/69609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Former DEA Agent Fired Over Positive THC Test From CBD Products Solicits Public Support As Legal Fees Mount To Challenge Agency\u2019s Action<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"