I Popped Hot on a Urinalysis (Article 112a UCMJ) | Can I Save My Career?

Article 112a of the UCMJ makes it a crime to wrongfully use, possess, distribute, manufacture, or bring onto a military installation a controlled substance. It’s one of the most frequently charged articles in the military, and most cases start with a single cup of urine. I’m Michael Waddington, civilian military defense lawyer and co-founder of Gonzalez & Waddington. Here’s what Article 112a covers, what it carries, how drug cases start, and how they’re defended, including the rules on hemp, CBD, and Delta-8.

First, the elements. For a use case, the government has to prove that you used a controlled substance and that your use was wrongful. Wrongful means without legal justification, like a valid prescription, and it requires that you knew you were using the substance. Possession requires that you knowingly had the drug under your control.

Distribution means delivering it to someone else, and that includes handing a friend a pill at a party. No money has to change hands. Second, the punishment. Using marijuana or possessing less than 30 grams carries up to 2 years and a dishonorable discharge.

Using or possessing cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD, ecstasy, heroin, and most other Schedule 1, 2, and 3 drugs carries up to 5 years. Distribution carries up to 15 years, and 5 years are added if the offense happens on duty as a sentinel, aboard a ship or aircraft, in a missile facility, in a combat zone receiving hostile fire pay, or in time of war. Beyond the court-martial, every service requires commanders to begin administrative separation for drug abuse, which means even a case resolved at Article 15 can end your career with an other than honorable discharge. Third, how cases start, the urinalysis.

Most 112a cases begin with a positive drug test. How the test was ordered matters. A random inspection, a probable cause test, or a test you consented to can be used against you at court-martial. A command-directed or fitness for duty test, or one taken as part of a medical treatment program, generally can’t be used for punishment, but can still be used for administrative separation.

The sample goes to a DoD drug testing lab, which uses a screening test and a confirmation test with set cutoff levels. A positive result lets a court-martial infer that you used the drug knowingly and wrongfully. That inference is the government’s whole case in many prosecutions, and it can be rebutted. Fourth, the other ways cases start.

Admissions to friends, chain of command, or investigators. Text messages and Venmo payments found during a search of someone else’s phone. A friend who gets caught and names everyone they’ve used with or sold to, often in exchange for leniency. Controlled buys by CID, NCIS, or OSI using an informant.

And civilian arrests off post that the military picks up. Fifth, hemp, CBD, and Delta-8. Since March 2020, the Department of Defense has prohibited service members from using any product made or derived from hemp, including CBD oils, lotions, gummies, and Delta-8 THC, even if the product is legal where you bought it. Each service implemented this through a punitive general order, so a violation is charged under Article 92, failure to obey a general order, which carries up to 2 years and a dishonorable discharge.

And because those products can contain THC, a hemp product can also cause a positive urinalysis for marijuana. “I only used CBD” is not a defense to the order, and it isn’t automatically a defense to the 112a charge. Sixth, the defenses. Innocent ingestion.

You didn’t know the substance was in what you consumed. For example, someone spiked a drink or food, and that has to be supported by evidence, not just a story. Lab and collection errors. The chain of custody, the observer, the labeling, the bottle seal, and the lab’s own documentation packet, which a defense expert can review line by line.

Unlawful inspection. Whether the urinalysis was a true random inspection or a disguised search targeting you. Valid prescription. Some positives are explained by a lawful medication.

And for possession and distribution, knowledge, control, and the credibility of a cooperating witness who’s trading testimony for a better deal. Seventh, prescription drugs. Taking someone else’s Adderall to stay awake on duty or a friend’s Oxycodone for a back injury is wrongful use under Article 112a. So is using your own prescription in a way that wasn’t prescribed, depending on the facts.

These cases are common and they’re often more defensible than people think. Eighth, what to do. One, if you’re notified of a positive urinalysis, don’t make any statement to your command or investigators about what you took or why. Two, don’t consent to a search of your phone, car, or room.

Three, write down for your lawyer everything you ate, drank, and took in the days before the test and who you were with. Four, request the lab’s documentation packet through your lawyer. Five, decide on Article 15 versus court-martial only after a lawyer has reviewed the evidence because the separation board that usually follows is a separate fight. At Gonzalez & Waddington, we’ve challenged positive urinalysis results with forensic toxicologists and lab packet reviews.

And we’ve defended distribution cases built on informants and text messages. So, what is Article 112a of the UCMJ? It’s the military’s drug offense, covering wrongful use, possession, or distribution of controlled substances with up to 5 years for most use cases, 15 years for distribution, and mandatory separation processing even if you’re never court-martialed. I’m Michael Waddington, a civilian military defense lawyer and co-founder of Gonzalez & Waddington with my law partner, Alexandra Gonzalez Watters.

For more than 20 years, we’ve defended service members stationed around the world in military investigations, courts-martial, Article 15s, reprimands, and administrative separation boards. If you’re facing a positive urinalysis or a drug charge, don’t wait. The decisions you make early can shape the entire case. When the government builds a case, we build your defense.

You can learn more at UCMJdefense. com or call 1-800-921-8607 for a free, confidential consultation. When the command knows you’ve got real defense, the game changes.