An worker at a Massachusetts hashish manufacturing facility died earlier this 12 months from inhaling hashish mud whereas working, in keeping with a preliminary inspection report from the U.S. Division of Labor’s Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA). In response to the report, the worker died whereas producing pre-rolled joints at a marijuana manufacturing website in Holyoke, Massachusetts operated by Trulieve, a Florida-based vertically built-in hashish firm with operations in 11 states.
In its report, which is topic to modification by the company, OSHA investigators wrote that an worker was grinding hashish flower to be packaged into pre-rolls on January 7 when she “mentioned she couldn’t breathe.” Though the report gives few particulars on the incident, the OSHA investigation decided that the unidentified “worker couldn’t breathe and was killed, as a result of 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 lively compounds present in marijuana.
In June, OSHA levied fines totaling greater than $35,000 towards Trulieve in reference to the worker’s dying. The three violations cited by OSHA are categorized as “critical,” with the company alleging that Trulieve violated federal rules requiring that corporations preserve a written hazard communication plan, hold security knowledge sheets on hazardous chemical compounds and supply data and coaching on these chemical compounds.
Holyoke’s civic leaders have welcomed Massachusetts’ regulated hashish trade to arrange store within the metropolis’s many vacant industrial buildings, issuing 72 licenses to domesticate, manufacture, and retail hashish merchandise to companies working within the jurisdiction, in keeping with knowledge from the state Hashish Management Fee. Native unbiased information website The Shoestring stories that indoor hashish cultivators are notably interested in the town north of Springfield in western Massachusetts, which has comparatively low electrical energy charges in comparison with different areas. Holyoke is likely one of the nation’s first deliberate industrial cities, permitting it to supply reasonably priced electrical energy produced through a dam and municipal canal system.
Co-Employee Alleges Mismanagement at Trulieve Facility in Massachusetts
The Trulieve worker’s dying was first reported final week by the podcast The Younger Jurks. Though the deceased employee was not recognized within the OSHA investigation report, The Younger Jurks recognized the worker as 27-year-old Lorna L. McMurrey of West Springfield, Massachusetts. 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 keif in Trulieve’s Holyoke, MA manufacturing facility,” the previous worker mentioned. “I had give up a couple of month previous to her passing as a result of horrific administration and corruption that I witnessed each day as a supervisor throughout the facility. I want that I had been there to save lots of her. Please look out in your individuals. Please educate yourselves.”
When requested in regards to the dying on the Trulieve hashish cultivation facility, Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia mentioned on Sunday that it was the primary he had heard in regards to the incident. He added that he didn’t have any data and couldn’t supply a touch upon the scenario.
“That is information to me and I’m very shocked to listen to this,” he wrote in a textual content message despatched to a reporter for The Shoestring.
Drew Weisse is an organizer at United Meals and Business Employees Native 1459, a labor union that represents employees at a Holyoke hashish manufacturing facility operated by Inexperienced Thumb Industries. He informed native media that employees within the hashish trade face a wide range of office hazards.
“You’re doing farm work in a manufacturing unit, so you have got the well being hazards related to each farm and manufacturing unit settings,” mentioned Weisse.
Trulieve is licensed to develop as much as 80,000 sq. toes of hashish crops at its facility in Holyoke, which is positioned in a former Conklin Workplace Furnishings manufacturing unit constructing. The corporate additionally operates three hashish retail shops in Massachusetts. Nationwide, Trulieve has operations in 11 states with authorized hashish, with main market positions in Arizona, Florida, and Pennsylvania.
A publicist for Trulieve informed Excessive Instances the corporate was drafting an announcement on the incident however declined to supply additional remark.