Eric Casey | Worchester Magazine
Since the beginning of legalization in Massachusetts, there’s been a growing chorus of cannabis workers and consumers who have raised safety concerns. After news of a fatal incident that occurred in January finally hit the press this month, that chorus has grown into a crescendo, and workers are finding new ways to push back.
Reports recently surfaced that Lorna McMurrey, a 27-year-old cannabis worker, passed away a few days after being hospitalized during a shift at a cultivation facility owned by Trulieve in Holyoke. According to a letter sent by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to the company, McMurrey’s death was the result of occupational asthma caused by the inhalation of cannabis dust. At the time of the incident, McMurrey was reportedly in the facility’s pre-roll manufacturing room, where she was using an industrial cannabis grinder. News of McMurrey’s death was first reported by local podcast The Young Jurks.
Trulieve released a statement after news of McMurrey’s death reached the public, expressing their sympathy for her family — while also claiming that OSHA found that air quality levels in the facility were normal and that PPE was available on-site. However, former Trulieve employee Danny Carson, who originally hired McMurrey, pushed back against these claims, telling The “Young Jurks” podcast that the PPE on-site was meant for COVID-19 prevention and was not sufficient for the air quality conditions inside the facility.
Another employee — who chose to remain anonymous — told marijuana business publication WeedWeek that the industrial cannabis grinder in the pre-roll manufacturing room was frequently run without an air filter as a time saving measure, and that Trulieve’s security team being short-staffed increased the response time by paramedics.
OSHA’s investigation remains ongoing, but the administration has already fined Trulieve a total of $35,219 for three separate violations dealing with a lack of communication of safety information to employees. The company is contesting the fines, but has declined to comment further on the incident.
Trulieve — which is one of the largest cannabis companies in the country, with over 180 dispensaries in nine states — is also under active investigation by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Cannabis Control Commission. In a statement released Oct. 14, the commission stated that the company’s Holyoke facility was under investigation even before the fatal incident took place, and that they became aware of it “on or around” Jan. 10 of this year.
“The agency follows up on concerns and allegations such as whistleblower and citizen complaints pertaining to regulatory violations by licensees,” the statement read. “In general, the Commission conducts on-site inspections in response to complaints.”
Speaking with multiple current and former cannabis employees across the state, it’s clear that safety concerns and other bad practices are not isolated to just one or two businesses, and these issues vary from questions about air quality, to allegations of mold and mildew infestations being covered up, to fears about the integrity of products being sold to consumers.
Despite all these concerns, there are some unique challenges to being a whistleblower in the cannabis industry. Strict security requirements mean every inch of cultivation and production space are constantly scanned by security cameras, and many doors in facilities require employees to swipe their badges to enter.
If a picture or description of an incident is leaked to social media or the press, a company could go back through the archives and determine which employees were present at the time, allowing them to use the very tools that are supposed to bring accountability to the industry to crack down on employees who are attempting to hold businesses accountable.
There was also a general consensus among the workers I spoke with that their complaints to regulators often go unheard. One employee at a cultivation facility that has had a history of mold problems and other crop failures told me that problems remain to this day, even after the issues received attention in the media and were the subject of an investigation.
With the high rate of turnover in the industry, it’s often easier for workers to just jump ship to another cannabis company than it is to sound the alarm over safety violations and other shady practices.
Despite these barriers, cannabis workers have begun to find ways to speak out and fight back. One worker has created an Instagram account — dubbed MassachusettsMids — that acts as a safe place for whistleblowers to post videos and pictures of conditions inside grow rooms and production labs. The account has attracted almost 500 followers since it was created this summer, many of them fellow cannabis industry employees or activists.
The anonymous curator of the account told me that they are a worker in the industry who has grown increasingly frustrated with conditions in facilities and the pressure from management and leadership to push product through in a way to cheat testing.
“Inspiration for this account came from all the stories from other friends in the space, and a session of, ‘you think that’s bad? Let me show you this,’” the curator said. “I had so much material from other people in the legal industry it seemed like the perfect time to start posting a true look behind the scenes.”
Originally, the account creator was hesitant to actually directly name which particular company’s products or facilities were being featured, but is starting to question that hesitancy after the success of the account and the tragedy at Trulieve.
“I’m just trying to get the message out from the inside that the industry isn’t all rainbows and unicorns.”
Growing weed and producing cannabis-infused products on an industrial scale is undeniably a challenging task, and there’s not exactly established procedures to follow in this nascent industry. Nobody is expecting perfection. What workers and informed consumers are asking for is the simple request that their health always be put before the pursuit of profit. Thousands of cannabis workers in Massachusetts rely on regulators to keep them safe, and for the 96,000 plus medical cannabis patients in the state — some of whom may have a weakened immune system — the potential impact of consuming contaminated weed is particularly concerning.
Public safety is supposed to be one of the main benefits of cannabis legalization. If these issues don’t receive the attention they deserve, workers fear that we’re tolerating a culture of indifference at cannabis businesses that can become — quite literally — toxic.
H/T: www.worcestermag.com
