The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of a trucker looking to sue a CBD supplement company, Medical Marijuana, Inc., under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which is often used against organized crime rings and can lead to greater monetary penalties and asset forfeiture when successful.
"In 2012, Douglas Horn was working as a commercial truck driver when he crashed his truck and injured his back and shoulder. Months later, he was still suffering from chronic pain, and neither physical therapy nor traditional medicine provided relief," wrote Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the opinion of the court. "While searching for a natural alternative, Horn came across 'Dixie X,' a tincture infused with cannabidiol -- more commonly known as CBD -- sold by Medical Marijuana, Inc."
[Related: Can truck drivers use CBD? All you need to know about cannabis, hemp, testing and the clearinghouse]
CBD is a "cousin" of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Use of marijuana and THC is illegal at the federal level and part of the panel of drug tests the Department of Transportation mandates truck drivers undergo.
Horn "was wary of any product that might contain THC," Barrett wrote, but Horn read the label, read Medical Marijuana's online FAQ page, and even called its customer service line to confirm he was in the clear.
Just a few weeks later, Horn got picked out by his employer for a random drug test, and "to his surprise, the test detected THC in his system," Barrett wrote. Horn stuck to his guns and "refused to complete a substance-abuse program" as required. In Horn's view, completing such a program "would constitute 'an admission to doing drugs,'" according to the text of the SCOTUS opinion.
Horn's employer fired him following the refusal.
[Related: FMCSA's random drug-testing rate for 2025]
Horn bought another bottle of "Dixie X" and had it tested in a lab, finding THC in the product. "In fact, the lab refused to mail the sample back to him, fearing that doing so would violate federal law," the opinion read.
From there, Horn began a long road up the command chain all the way to the nation's highest court. The key question, batted around in lower courts, surrounded whether Horn had standing to sue as part of a RICO case and whether the "personal injury" done to him via the faulty product was the same as being "injured in his business."
Barrett dedicates a lot of ink to recapping Medical Marijuana's various arguments about the meanings of words like injured, harmed, damages and losses, but ultimately the court decided Horn can proceed with a RICO case against Medical Marijuana, which another court will have to take up at a later date.
Why even bother with a RICO case if it's taken 13 years to work its way through the courts? Three reasons:
If Horn wins his RICO case against Medical Marijuana, U.S. law says he could "recover threefold the damages he sustains and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee."
Horn's case has now made history in the highest court in the land, but for drivers, the real lesson is clear: Don't risk it with CBD products.
Even as the U.S. considers rescheduling or descheduling marijuana, or changing its legal status, CDL holders still have to pass DOT drug tests, and those still include THC screenings. Overdrive has heard from drivers who have failed due to CBD before and their arduous journeys through the Return to Duty program, and it's simply not worth the risk.
[Related: NTSB urges caution on marijuana rescheduling]
