Ex-Trulieve Employees Speak Out Following Colleague's Death Tied To Cannabis Dust Inhalation

Following the recently released report offering more details into what happened on Jan. 7, 2022, when a cannabis worker died at a Trulieve TCNNF productions facility in Holyoke, the company’s former employees are speaking out. 

A report filed by officials with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) states that at around 11 p.m. Lorna L. McMurrey, 27, who was grinding and packaging cannabis into prerolls, complained she couldn’t breathe presumably because of cannabis kief (cannabis dust) in the room. She was taken to a local hospital where she died shortly afterward.

An ex-employee, who asked to remain anonymous though he said he was McMurrey’s former supervisor, shared some details with Western Mass News.

“I was the one who brought her on, hired her, and trained her for her job…We worked really closely, eight hours a day, five days a week, and she didn’t have a car, so I brought her home from work and, you know, dropped her off at her parents and so I got to know her very well and hearing the news shocked my entire soul,” the former cannabis employee said.

Another former worker, who was hired as a flower technician, said he was in the room with McMurrey and the rest of their 10-member team on the night of her death. 

“She ended up having an asthma attack and, to be honest, I was one of the people trying to remove her from the room, so she could get fresh air. While she was panicking, she was having a panic attack because she couldn’t breathe and instead of the department manager forcefully taking her out of the room, he did not,” the second employee said, adding that he himself was also experiencing breathing difficulty from dust particles in the air. 

“The day after this incident happened, I went to health about it and I asked for some way to make it a better breathing environment and I said ‘Until you do that, I would just like to temporarily be removed from the environment until the situation is fixed’…and then at the end of my shift, they ended up letting me go,” the employee said. 

What Did OSHA Report? 

The OSHA report, the only official document in the case, noted that it is still open and therefore the content can change. The Accidental Investigation Summary at this point does not provide much information, except the following:

“Filling pre-rolls She said she couldn’t breathe. Not being able to breathe Marijuana kief (dust) At 11:00 p.m. on January 7, 2022, an employee was grinding cannabis flowers, and packaging ground cannabis in pre-rolls. The employee could not breathe and was killed, due to the hazards of ground cannabis dust.”

Details about whether the OSHA investigator relied on medical files or talked to McMurrey’s family have not yet been disclosed.

According to the report, Trulieve committed three serious violations assessed by OSHA for which it paid fines totaling $35,219.

Previous Violations 

It seems that alleged regulatory violations on the part of Trulieve are not the first reported by OSHA at its cultivation facilities writes TheShoeString. In March of this year, Trulieve settled an OSHA case in Pennsylvania, where it was accused of violating a regulation demanding that businesses report in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye in the case of employees and workers.

Furthermore, some two years ago, OSHA cited the company for violating respiratory protection and hazard communication regulations at its cultivation facility in Quincy, Florida.

Employees Point To Other Faults 

A former employee also highlighted a lack of adequate training, urging for more rigid regulations across the industry, writes the outlet.

“There’s never been somebody holding any of these companies accountable for making sure their ventilation is proper, for checking particle counts, for knowing that they’re manufacturing something that puts so many particles into the air that even somebody without asthma can have trouble breathing,” the employee said. 

According to a spokesperson for Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, licensees such as Trulieve should be held responsible for securing facilities and fixtures are in a sanitary condition and for reporting any incidents to OSHA. 

The employee went on to say that the company didn’t support people when they wanted to use their voice or point to some issues. 

“There’s no psychological safety there,” he said, adding “You couldn’t speak to your superiors, period…They would talk down to you, instead of talking to you like you’re a human being like you were a dog being trained,” the second employee added. 

The company did provide the entire department with free therapy sessions upon McMurrey’s death. 

With the case still open, it remains to be seen who was responsible for Lorna McMurrey's tragic death. 

Photo: Courtesy of Richard T on Unsplash