Supreme Court to hear case of truck driver who failed drug test after taking CBD product

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will arguments in the case of a former truck driver who sued a CBD company after he took one of their products and failed a drug test.

In 2012, the driver, Douglas Horn, took the CBD product to alleviate chronic pain. In the brief filed on his behalf, he claims the product was advertised as containing no THC, which his employer tested for in random drug tests. But Horn, who said he never used marijuana, failed the drug test, and that ended costing him his job.

Horn ordered more of the CBD product and sent it to a lab for testing. According to Horn’s brief, the lab did find THC in the product, so Horn sued the company under the RICO Act - the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

The law is usually used to go after organized crime, but civil suits are also allowed.

“The civil part of Rico is constructed much more broadly and does cover a lot of what we would consider, for lack of a better term, common law fraud,” said Brian Wolfman, Georgetown Law Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic.

The company, Medical Marijuana Inc., argues Horn’s case is a personal injury claim which a district judge ruled excludes it from RICO.

An appeals court sided with Horn.

Now the high court will decide if the case can move forward, which would have broader implications for the types of cases that could prevail under RICO.

“One might say that the injuries initially have their origins in personal injuries, but if they harm people in their business or property, as they might do again in Mr. Horn’s case, you have a remedy under RICO," said Wolfman.

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