DEA Officer Who 3D-Printed Cocaine Gets 17 Years in Prison

tl;dr

He wasn't developing new drug dosage formats as a hobbyist, by experimenting using contraband without having permission.

Nope, he was just stealing contraband from the evidence room, and covering it up in a way that wouldn't be expected to withstand much scrutiny.

Whether he had permission to do that or not over an entire 10-year period would be hard to know for sure, considering how easily such permission could be revoked :\