A former supervisor at a Trulieve hashish cultivation and processing operation in Massachusetts says that the corporate promoted the positioning’s surroundings, well being and security supervisor just one month after a employee reportedly died from inhaling marijuana mud on the facility, based on experiences from WeedWeek and the podcast The Younger Jurks. Trulieve is a Florida-based vertically built-in hashish firm with operations in 11 states.
Late final month, The Younger Jurks revealed that Trulieve worker Lorna McMurrey died after inhaling mud from hashish whereas she was producing pre-rolled joints on the firm’s facility in Holyoke, Massachusetts. After an investigation, Trulieve was fined greater than $35,000 for violations on the Holyoke facility, based on a report from the U.S. Division of Labor’s Occupational Security and Well being Administration. After information of the incident broke and 9 months after McMurrey’s demise, Trulieve confirmed the report on October 3.
“In January of this yr, Trulieve skilled the lack of one in every of our workforce members, Lorna McMurrey, who was working in our Holyoke, Massachusetts facility,” the corporate wrote in an electronic mail assertion to Excessive Occasions. “Our hearts exit to Ms. McMurrey’s household, associates, and colleagues because the circumstances round her passing have just lately resurfaced, ensuing of their having to re-experience their loss.”
“Out of respect for the household’s privateness, we aren’t going to offer any particulars as to the specifics of that day. Nevertheless, OSHA carried out a radical investigation of the Holyoke facility. PPE was accessible onsite,” Trulieve continued in its assertion. “They examined the air high quality all through the ability and the samples had been all nicely under acceptable ranges. OSHA did challenge citations associated to communication requirements and Trulieve has contested these findings. We cherish and worth all the 9,000 staff who make Trulieve a household and the security of our workforce members is paramount to our core values.”
Former Supervisor Disputes Trulieve
However Danny Carson, a former Trulieve supervisor who employed McMurrey in spring 2021 and supervised her till he left the corporate the next August, disputed Trulieve’s assertion that protecting tools was accessible to staff working on the Holyoke facility. He stated that the face masks on the hashish cultivation and processing operation had been for cover from COVID-19 quite than respirators designed for staff in industrial settings. The masks staff got, he added, didn’t match the face tight sufficient to maintain out particulates within the air.
“They don’t seem to be ample to assist their staff with respiration,” Carson told WeedWeek.
In an interview with The Younger Jurks over the weekend, Carson stated that “cultivation protecting tools” was given to staff to guard the product quite than the workers.
“Gloves will not be private protecting tools,” he stated. “A hairnet isn’t private productive tools.”
Carson additionally stated that Trulieve had promoted the Holyoke facility’s surroundings, well being and security supervisor a month after McMurrey’s demise. The promoted supervisor, who was not recognized, didn’t reply to a request for remark from WeedWeek.
OSHA Fined Facility Extra Than $35,000
In its report, which has not but been finalized by the company, OSHA investigators wrote that an worker was grinding hashish flower to be packaged into pre-rolls on January 7 when she “stated she couldn’t breathe.” Though the report supplies few particulars on the incident, the OSHA investigation decided that the unidentified “worker couldn’t breathe and was killed, because of the hazards of floor hashish mud.” The report additionally talked about that the inhaled mud contained marijuana kief, that are indifferent hashish trichomes, the glands that produce THC and different energetic compounds present in marijuana.
In June, OSHA assessed fines totaling greater than $35,000 towards Trulieve in reference to McMurrey’s demise, though she was not recognized within the report. The three violations cited by OSHA are categorized as “severe,” with the company alleging that Trulieve violated federal laws requiring that corporations keep a written hazard communication plan, hold security knowledge sheets on hazardous chemical compounds and supply data and coaching on these chemical compounds.
The Younger Jurks first reported McMurrey’s death in a podcast live-streamed in late September. In a put up on YouTube, The Younger Jurks shared an announcement from an unidentified former co-worker who alleged mismanagement on the Trulieve facility.
“Lorna McMurrey tragically handed away whereas processing kief in Trulieve’s Holyoke, MA manufacturing facility,” the previous worker stated. “I had stop a few month previous to her passing because of the horrific administration and corruption that I witnessed day by day as a supervisor inside the facility. I want that I had been there to save lots of her. Please look out on your individuals. Please educate yourselves.”
WeedWeek reported that the hashish trade commerce teams the U.S. Hashish Council and the Nationwide Hashish Business Affiliation (NCIA) didn’t reply to a request for remark in regards to the potential want for respirators for staff within the hashish trade.
“Whereas that is an ongoing case, all I’ve to say is that I’m deeply saddened to be taught of Ms. McMurrey’s passing and are watching the case carefully,” stated NCIA govt director Aaron Smith.