The military drug testing system may be jeopardized by a court-martial jury’s acquittal of a marine who tested positive on a random drug test because he used a legal dietary supplement containing hemp seed oil.

The military drug testing system may be jeopardized by a court-martial jury’s acquittal of a marine who tested positive on a random drug test because he used a legal dietary supplement containing hemp seed oil.

Marine cleared; says he used diet product

Camp Pendleton - The military drug testing system may be jeopardized by a court-martial jury’s acquittal of a marine who tested positive on a random drug test because he used a legal dietary supplement containing hemp seed oil.

After 35 minutes of deliberations, a jury of three officers and five sergeants acquitted Lance Cpl. Kevin Boyd of a single count of using marijuana.

Boyd, a heavily muscled avid bodybuilder, contended that he tested positively in August because he was using a dietary supplement containing hemp seed oil, which is a legal byproduct of marijuana plants.

Hemp seed oil is high in essential fatty acids and has been advocated by some nutrition experts. A tablespoonful or two a day is supposed to help build muscles and burn calories more efficiently.

In most cases, a positive result from a drug test has been enough evidence for military juries to convict. The military routinely requires soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen to submit to random urine tests. The tests, which are in response to rampant drug use in the armed forces during the 1970’s and early 1980’s have been successful in making the military virtually drug-free.

But, in the Boyd case and another in December involving an Air Force sergeant, defense attorneys convinced court-martial panels that their clients had not smoked illegal marijuana but, instead, had drunk a readily available health-food supplement.

In the Air Force case, Chief Master Sgt. Spencer Gaines, also a bodybuilder, was acquitted under nearly the same circumstances as those in the Marine case here.

While those two acquittals set no precedent in other courts-martial, the verdicts point to a viable defense strategy for many service members accused of drug use.

Boyd’s attorney and a Navy pharmacologist, who testified for the defense, said yesterday’s acquittal could spell serious trouble for the military’s random drug testing program.

"It’s going to be tough on the government (prosecutors) because anyone who ‘pops’ on a drug test will argue this (defense)," Capt. Todd Wallace said

Lt. Thomas Bosy, a pharmacologist and research coordinator at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., said Boyd’s case highlighted a serious threat to the government testing program.

In tests, Bosy found amounts of THC, the banned component of marijuana, in seven brands of hemp seed oil. The amounts were high enough, Bosy testified, to show up as a positive result on standard drug tests.

Several studies in the United States and Europe agree that commercially available hemp seed oil has identifiable levels of THC, tetrahydrocannabinol.

However, most distributors have said their products have no THC. None of the oil products will give users a high.

Marine Corps officials in Washington were unavailable last night for comment about the verdict.

A spokesman for a national pro-marijuana organization called the court martial verdict "interesting."

There is little doubt that ingestion of hemp seed oil will produce an adverse test result, said Paul Armentano, a spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. As more people use hemp seed oil, Armentano predicted, many more cases of the "false positive" drug tests will occur.

During closing arguments of the two-day special court-martial, the prosecutor, Capt. Paul Buta, said that, although there was no eyewitness to say Boyd smoked marijuana, the urinalysis was a "silent witness."

Regarding the defense claims, Buta told the jury, "Hemp oil is fanciful ingenious, imaginative. It’s a red herring."

Although the lance corporal did not testify, jurors heard from a woman who lived in Boyd’s house and said she saw him drink the oil supplement.

After the verdict, Boyd said he was "finally relieved."

"I’ve been in the twilight zone for seven months," he said.

Boyd plans to leave the Marine Corps in three months when his enlistment ends. He expects to attend junior college and play football.