Another Cannabis Company Employee Dies During Shift: What's Going On?

An employee collapsed and died during her shift at Green Thumb Industries' GTBIF cultivation and manufacturing facility in Rock Island, Illinois, exclusively reported WeedWeek.

“It is with great sadness that we confirm the passing of an employee at our Rock Island, IL facility. Our deepest condolences go out to her family,” Green Thumb stated. “We are working to confirm the details surrounding this tragic event, however we have no reason to believe it was related to the work environment. We are focused on supporting our team members and the family during this difficult time.”

The worker’s name has not been revealed yet, but according to testimony from another employee who wished to be called Marv, she was about 60 years old and had recently changed position within the company from desk work to manufacturing. Marv said that while working in the production area he himself had been having coughing fits. He added that he received a “very threatening” call from the company’s HR executive, after posting the news of this tragic event on social media sites.

The news comes on the heels of Teamsters Local 777 filing additional unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against Green Thumb Industries, the parent company of RISE dispensaries. The charges came after workers embarked on the longest ULP strike at a cannabis retailer in U.S. history.

The Rock Island factory is yet not unionized.

According to Alex Suarez who is a cannabis business agent with Teamsters Local 777, the deceased worker had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), wrote Week Week.

Rock Island County Coroner Brian Gustafson, told WeedWeed that the case is being investigated as a natural death, not related to the working environment.

The Case Of Lorna McMurrey

Unfortunately, this is not the first incident of this kind in the nascent cannabis industry. 

Last year, Lorna McMurrey tragically died at the age of 27 at a Trulieve facility in January 2022.

Per the report filed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) McMurrey complained that she couldn't breathe presumably due to the cannabis kief (cannabis dust) in the air where she was grinding and packaging prerolls. She was taken to a local hospital where she died shortly thereafter.

Both McMurrey's family and co-workers spoke to the press about the case, after which Trulieve finally came out with an official statement disputing some of the reported details. The statement came about a week after McMurrey’s family told a local NBC station that Lorna smoked cannabis from time to time but had never experienced asthma until she started working at Trulieve. Her mother confirmed another incident that occurred two months before Lorna's death, in which they realized she was developing asthma.

Danny Carson, McMurrey’s former supervisor denied Trulieve’s statement that the workers had protective equipment available to them. He said the masks at their disposal were for COVID prevention and were not respiratory masks designed for industrial jobs and the type of work being done at the facility. When asked if he signed a non-disclosure agreement preventing employees from speaking publicly about delicate matters, Carson said that he might have, but...“they killed my friend.”

Then, after nearly two months, Trulieve entered into a voluntary agreement with OSHA that was supposed to result in additional health and safety protections for the company’s workers at its cannabis manufacturing facilities. Under the agreement, Trulieve agreed to undertake a study to determine whether ground cannabis dust is required to be classified as a "hazardous chemical" in the occupational setting, according to OSHA regulations.

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Photo: Courtesy of Ryan Lange on Unsplash