State Cannabis Regulators are Fining the Industry’s Biggest Players

This article is an update on The Shoestring’s 2023 investigation into working conditions in the cannabis industry — an article we co-published with The Nation magazine. 

In recent months, the agency in charge of regulating Massachusetts’ cannabis industry has levied some of its largest-ever fines against two companies for alleged misconduct at their grow-and-processing facilities in western Massachusetts. 

Earlier this month, the Cannabis Control Commission fined the national cannabis giant Trulieve $350,000 over allegations that the company’s lack of safety protocols led to the death of a 27-year-old worker, Lorna McMurrey, in early 2022 at its cannabis plant in Holyoke. That fine came just two months after the Cannabis Control Commission settled for $200,000 with another multi-state marijuana company, Holistic Industries, over its alleged behavior during a 2021 mold infestation at the company’s cultivation and manufacturing facility in Monson.

Representatives from Trulieve and Holistic did not respond to emails requesting comment last week. In the Cannabis Control Commission’s settlement agreements with the companies, the agency allowed them to neither admit nor deny the allegations against them. 

On June 13, the Cannabis Control Commission entered into a settlement agreement with Trulieve over McMurrey’s death. McMurrey had complained of trouble breathing in November 2021 and had to be rushed to the hospital. Then, in January 2022, she collapsed at work and died three days later of a heart attack due to an apparent asthma attack.

In particular, the regulatory agency found that Trulieve failed to provide respirators to workers exposed to marijuana dust and didn’t reassess or monitor those dust hazards after McMurrey experienced an initial medical emergency in November 2021. The agency also found that Trulieve didn’t conduct safety audits from July 2021 to January 2023, failed to maintain complete personnel records, and didn’t implement adequate operating procedures to ensure safety during the processing of marijuana.

Trulieve “operated the Mobius Mill and Rocketbox, machines that generate substantial amounts of Marijuana dust, in a small, fully enclosed room filled with production equipment and near multiple agents without policies or adequate PPE to protect workers from potential hazards,” the settlement says.

The $350,000 fine matches the highest monetary penalty the Cannabis Control Commission has ever levied against a company. In 2020, the agency fined the Georgetown-based company Healthy Pharms $350,000 for allegedly using prohibited pesticides on its cannabis on several occasions in 2018 and 2019.

The Cannabis Control Commission isn’t the only agency that fined Trulieve over McMurrey’s death. The incident initially came to light after the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration levied an initial fine of $35,219 against the company two years prior. However, last year OSHA reduced that penalty to $14,502 and dropped all but one charge against Trulieve: that the company didn’t evaluate whether ground cannabis dust should be classified as a hazardous chemical.

Those fines won’t make much of a dent in Trulieve’s earnings. In the first quarter of this year alone, the company made a gross profit of nearly $174 million, according to federal filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fines represent just 0.2% of those profits.

Last year, Trulieve closed all of its Massachusetts locations, including its Holyoke manufacturing site and a dispensary in Northampton. McMurrey’s family also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Trulieve last year — a case that is still pending in Hampden County Superior Court.

The Cannabis Control Commission also fined Holistic Industries, which operates dispensaries in Easthampton and Springfield, for its actions during a mold infestation at its cultivation and manufacturing plant in Monson in 2021. In its settlement agreement, the commission said that the company had a mold issue at that facility since at least November 2020 and that it was remediated in May of 2022. 

Regulators learned about the mold problem after receiving complaints in November 2021 from employees, including some that said possibly contaminated cannabis was “pushed through anyway,” according to the commission’s settlement agreement. That mold was present in locations across the building, including in the HVAC systems, growing rooms, processing tables, and the building’s structural elements, the commission alleged.

The Cannabis Control Commission has alleged that, despite knowing about the mold, Holistic continued to operate the facility and jeopardized the public welfare in doing so.

“A former Holistic employee determined after reviewing Holistic’s testing experience that polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing would likely result in Marijuana passing testing, whereas Plate Assay testing would likely result in Marijuana failing testing,” the settlement agreement reads. “Holistic knowingly requested PCR testing in multiple instances to help ensure product would get to market.”

The agreement also alleges that Holistic knew some of its products smelled and tasted like mold but sold them to the public anyway.

“Numerous consumer and patient complaints were levied to Holistic in this period complaining that the product smelled and tasted like mold,” the settlement alleges. “Holistic provided samples of Marijuana that had passed testing to employees for their consumption and to test for, at least in part, moldy flavor … Holistic remediated some batches of Marijuana after some employees tested the same for moldy flavor.”

Dusty Christensen is an independent investigative reporter based in western Massachusetts. He can be reached at dusty.christensen@protonmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dustyc123 or on Instagram @dustycreports.

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