An Orlando firefighter fired last year for a positive drug test was given his job back last week, after he argued the cocaine in his system was a result of drinking a tea made with coca leaves, an internal investigation shows.
The positive drug test results, recorded during an annual physical exam in December 2017, prompted the Orlando Fire Department to fire Kevin Reynolds two months later, according to documents released this week in response to a Jan. 4 public records request.
He was found to have committed two violations: use of intoxicants or drugs and a general order on drug and alcohol testing. The policies prohibit department members from using illicit drugs “at all times on or off the job,” the order states.
Records show Reynolds told investigators he tested positive for cocaine because he drinks coca tea, which is consumed in South America to combat altitude sickness.
“I hiked Machu Picchu in Peru... last August I did Kilimanjaro, and you drink ‘coca tea’ there,” Reynolds said in the interview, according to a report of the investigation. “[I] bought a commercial box of it and I brought it back and taken [it] all over the world.”
Union officials filed a grievance on Reynolds’ behalf before he was fired, alleging the Fire Department violated his union contract by mishandling testing procedures, records show.
Reynolds said when he was told of the test results, he was “dumbfounded” as to what drug he tested positive for. He also argued the department failed to notify him in a timely manner an investigation was being initiated, and he never received a written notice of the test results, records show.
He argued that prevented him from filing to contest the results in the allotted five-day period after receiving a notice.
Reynold’s union asked that the investigation be dropped and the test results documented as being “issued in error,” records show.
Chief Roderick Williams, in response to the grievance, denied that Reynolds was not told which drug he tested positive for. In an interview with investigators, the doctor who performed the test said it’s standard practice to give the donor that information and it was “not possible” Reynolds wasn’t told.
Written notice of drug test results is also not required under department policy, Williams said, denying the grievance and terminating Reynolds in February 2018, records show.
But the city, union officials and Reynolds settled the case last week, when they signed an agreement to drop arbitration proceedings and rescind Reynolds’ termination.
Included in Reynolds’ investigation is a research article on coca tea and urine samples, which said that drinking a cup of Peruvian or Bolivian coca tea, which “contain a significant amount of cocaine and cocaine-related alkaloids,” can produce a positive drug test result.
Ronald Glass, president of the firefighters’ union that represents OFD, said the city rescinded the termination because “the Union showed that the City did not follow the correct testing procedure, and Kevin presented evidence that the test results were inaccurate.”
Reynolds was reinstated to his previous duties and earned a promotion he anticipated prior to the investigation, the settlement states. He agreed to abide by a “last chance agreement,” which required him to complete an employee assistance program.
The city agreed to give Reynolds back-pay and benefits, crediting him with his prior 144 hours of sick leave and paying the difference in temporary health insurance costs while he was unemployed.
The union said it would withdraw pending grievances and its arbitration request, and agreed that the settlement “shall not be construed as an admission of any wrongdoing by either party.”
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