Issue 44: Think Journalism and Labor Unions are Dead? Think Again.
A corrupt politician gets bounced from office, and a work stoppage gets cannabis workers a pay bump.
Welcome to Issue #44 of Burn After Reading! You can check out last week’s issue here. If you haven’t subscribed already, head here.
Events in Oregon and Illinois Remind Us That The System Still Works
It would be nice if we lived in a society where politicians were never corrupt and where corporations always gave their workers a livable wage.
Obviously, that type of society doesn’t (yet) exist, but luckily we have two important institutions — newspapers and labor unions — who are still doing important work to build a better world.
Neither of these institutions are without their flaws, but two unrelated stories from the cannabis space this week show us that reports of their ineffectiveness have been largely exaggerated:
Sending Out an SoS: Oregon’s Political Wunderkind Has Her Career Derailed By A Cannabis Scandal
Just a few months ago, La Mota was seemingly one of the most successful cannabis companies in Oregon, and Secretary of State Shemia Fagan was a rising star in the local political scene, an advocate for transparency who was widely expected to become the next Governor of the state.
Now, La Mota’s reputation has been shattered and Fagan has resigned from office, all after a local newspaper revealed a number of startling facts about both parties — as well as their close relationship with one another.
For those of you who haven’t been following the La Mota saga, here’s a recap of the last month or so:
March 29th: The Willamette Week published a story detailing how La Mota’s owners were donating tens of thousands of dollars to elected officials, even as their company piled up millions in debt. The same day, the outlet also published as story outlining a number of accusations made against the company by former employees, including claims of unpaid wages and claims that the company failed to implement safety precautions after La Mota’s stores were targeted by armed robbers. Workers claimed the company tried to use non-disclosure agreements to prevent them from going public.
April 27th: Fagan confirms reports by WW that she entered into an agreement to provide consulting services to La Mota. Fagan claimed that the contract only involved work outside the state, and that she had recused herself from the ongoing audit of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. Fagan did not seek guidance from the Government Ethics Commission regarding the contract, a move that is supposed to be standard practice.
May 2nd: After facing widespread condemnation from a variety of current and former politicians, Fagan announces her resignation.
May 4th (last night): WW reports that Fagan spoke with the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut as part of her consulting role with La Mota. They also revealed that she allowed one of the co-owners of La Mota to edit language regarding the scope and focus of the audit of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.
(WW has published a more exhaustive timeline of the whole situation here.)
How did the owners of La Mota react to hearing about Fagan’s resignation? You can see for yourself! Local news station KOIN6 happened to be in the middle of an interview with them as the news broke.
The important role that journalist Sophie Peel and the Willamette Week did to get this story out there really can’t be overstated. It’s worth noting that the WW is a locally owned free publication, an increasingly rare thing in today’s media landscape.
This development in Oregon comes on the heels of the former head of Michigan’s medical marijuana licensing board admitting that he took $110,000 in bribes. It also comes just months after the head of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission resigned after a scandal involving the hoarding of valuable bottles of booze.
A Big Fence Fails To Prevent Cannabis Workers from Climbing up the Pay Ladder
After thirteen days, The longest reported strike in the history of the cannabis industry is over, and the workers won: Green Thumb Industries (aka Rise Dispensaries) has agreed to give their Illinois-based workers a significant wage increase.
From MJBiz:
The strike began at 4:20 p.m. on April 19 – the day before the 4/20 marijuana celebration and one of the busiest shopping days on a cannabis retailer’s calendar – after company officials told union members to remove pro-union buttons that featured a picture of a joint, workers told MJBizDaily last week.
That led the union to filing a federal Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging illegal union-busting tactics.
That complaint was still pending as of this week.
Workers at the Rise locations start at $16.50 an hour and were pushing for higher starting pay and raises as well as company contributions to retirement, said Reilly Drew, a patient-care specialist.
Other marijuana chains, including nearby Ascend Wellness Holdings, which is also organized under the Teamsters, start at $19.50 an hour, workers said.
According to a press release from Teamsters 777, GTI raised wages by 50 percent during the strike, and by law will now have to honor this higher wage during collective bargaining. The union says their fight with GTI isn’t over, as they claim the company committed a number Unfair Labor Practices during the past few weeks.
During the last week, GTI had a temporary fence erected around the perimeter of their facility, apparently in an attempt to prevent strikers from interacting with potential customers. Many people pointed out that the company was spending money on fences and security that could have been used to just pay their workers more.
The strike, perfectly timed to coincide with 4/20, captured the attention of the national press and local politicians alike. The Teamsters are relatively new to organizing cannabis workers – they only got into the space in 2021 — but this concrete win for their members is sure to have more budtenders, trimmers and growers wondering if a similar move at their own workplaces would bring similar results.
This is smart, because cannabis companies are particularly vulnerable to work stoppages. With workers in most states needing a state-issued badge to legally work in a facility, companies can’t quickly bring in workers from other states (or scabs) to fill in, and cannabis plants can quickly wither away without the daily TLC that cultivation staff provide.
In fact, GTI reportedly had to have high-level corporate employees fill in for the striking workers (executives are often badged in multiple states so they don’t have to sign in as a visitor when giving investors and other bigwigs tours of facilities).
Perhaps their experiences behind the counter convinced the executives that their employees are underpaid after all.
Updates
Episode 2 of Blunt Banter has dropped! This week, Ravon and I discuss Dutchie crashing on 4/20, Delaware going legal, and the dangers of HLV. You can check it out here.
In this week’s column for paid subscribers, I took a look at cannabis companies sponsoring sports teams and leagues.
I’m happy to announce that I’m back on the Worcester weed beat! I’ve taken over Travis Duda’s monthly 420 in the 508 column in Worcester Pulse Magazine. I’ll share a link to my first column once it’s up.
Headlines
Clearly these newsletters need to be longer AND need to include more of my ramblings, so I’ve decided to start adding a sentence or two of my own thoughts after each story excerpt.
New England
FAKE MARIJUANA DISPENSARY LISTING CAUSES CONFUSION, SENDS CUSTOMERS TO DORCHESTER WOMAN’S HOME (Michael Yoshida | WHDH)
7NEWS spoke with Denise, who said she initially thought people just had the wrong address. Then, she said the people knocking on her door showed her what was popping up online when they searched for “cannabis delivery Boston.”
MY THOUGHTS: 1) Please leave this lady alone, and 2) perhaps this is more evidence that the CCC should make it a bit easier for consumers to find a licensed operator who will deliver to their address. It’s easy to find a physical store near you using their website’s Find A Retailer feature, but finding a delivery operator who will deliver to you address requires a lot more digging from consumers (and a solid understanding of the state’s rules governing deliveries).
FARMER: MASS. HEMP INDUSTRY ‘MAY NOT SURVIVE' WITHOUT REGULATORY CHANGES (Sam Drysdale | NBC10 Boston)
Though Massachusetts farmers cannot produce CBD dietary supplements, vitamins, food and drinks, Bay Staters can still purchase these products at gas stations and grocery stores across the state. Products that are produced lawfully in other states are legally allowed to be sold in Massachusetts.MY
MY THOUGHTS: Yes, you read that right: CBD producers in other states can sell their pills, foods, and other edible items here in Massachusetts, but in-state producers can’t. Hopefully this absurd situation is rectified soon.
REPORT LINKS ‘EXODUS’ OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA CAREGIVERS TO MARKET OVERSUPPLY (Terry Stackhouse | WMTV8)
According to a new report from Maine’s Office of Cannabis Policy, 1,350 licensed medical marijuana growers have left the program since 2021, accounting for a 27.5% decline.
The office surveyed former caregivers to gain a better understanding of why they did not renew their registrations for the program in 2022.The five most common reasons for exiting were oversupply and lower proxies, utility costs, business costs, banking regulations and fees and competition from the adult-use market.
MY THOUGHTS: Reading the study, it’s pretty clear it found exactly what the MMCP wanted to find. Despite only reaching 8.7% of caregivers who left the program, it makes a number of big claims, some of which have little to do with the issue the study was supposed to be examining. Even if I agree with some of its findings, this document comes off more as an opinion piece than a study.
Rest of U.S. / National
FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION AGENCY FINALIZES NEW MARIJUANA TESTING POLICIES TO REDUCE FALSE POSITIVES (Kyle Jaeger | Marijuana Moment)
In a notice published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the department said that it has completed the rulemaking process for the policy change, which would allow oral saliva drug testing as an alternative to urine-based tests. Advocates and experts view as urine tests as problematic in part because THC metabolites can show up for weeks or months after consumption—resulting in false positive results for people who are not actually impaired on the job.
MY THOUGHTS: Another teeny tiny step towards more sensible cannabis policies from the Biden Administration. Hopefully one day they’ll work up the courage to make some more meaningful reforms across the board.
TRUMP ADMITS MARIJUANA IS A ‘PRETTY POPULAR THING’ EVEN AS HE ARGUES IT ‘DOES DAMAGE’ (Kyle Jaeger | Marijuana Moment)
“I mean, you see the same studies. It’s not helping people,” Trump said. “I mean, studies are saying that it does damage. It does significant damage—and yet, from a voting standpoint, it’s a pretty popular thing.”
MY THOUGHTS: Trump has shown his true colors on this issue yet again. A certain segment of the cannabis industry will continue to claim he’s going to have a change of heart, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
CANNABIS WORKERS FACE DEATH AND EXPLOITATION. CALIFORNIA IS STEPPING IN AFTER TIMES INVESTIGATION (Paige St. John | LA Times)
Acknowledging growing concern over the mistreatment of cannabis workers, California regulators have quietly assembled a team to pursue labor exploitation in the state’s burgeoning weed industry.
The new unit, housed within the Department of Cannabis Control, recently solicited help from law enforcement agencies statewide to investigate cannabis operators who coerce or threaten workers, subject them to hazardous conditions or deny them pay.
MY THOUGHTS: It’s about time, as this is a problem across the whole industry. I’m losing patience with regulators who continue to show lip service to worker safety without actually proposing any immediate and meaningful action.
International
🇨🇿 CZECH REPUBLIC TO REMOVE CBD AND OTHER HEMP-DERIVED CANNABINOIDS FROM THE MARKET (Dario Sabaghi | Forbes)
The Ministry of Agriculture announced on April 25 its intention to set up new measures to remove products containing CBD and other hemp-derived cannabinoids from the Czech market, claiming that foodstuffs containing CBD cannot be placed on the market in any EU country due to the lack of scientific studies on their effects on human health.
MY THOUGHTS: This seems like a backwards move for a country that is seemingly on the verge of legalizing cannabis. Blaming the EU is a strange move, considering the rules around CBD aren’t actually binding.
🇹🇭 THAILAND: SOUTHEAST ASIA'S 'WEED WONDERLAND' ( Jonathan Head | BBC)
The website Weed in Thailand lists more than 4,000 businesses across the country selling cannabis and its derivatives.
And this is Thailand, where until last June you could be jailed for five years just for possessing marijuana, up to 15 years for producing it; where other drug offences get the death penalty. The pace of change has been breathtaking.
MY THOUGHTS: I’m still a fan of regulations, but it’s worthing that the cannabis free-for-all in Thailand hasn’t lead to any major problems.. yet.
Welcome Distraction
I try to not let my love of sports invade this space too often, but we simply must address the incredible season that Erling Haaland is having at Manchester City. The 22 year old striker/nordic god has scored 51 goals in 45 appearances for his club in the 2022-2023 campaign, smashing a number of long standing records in the process. It’s incredibly rare for a player to have more goals than appearances, especially against the type of competition Man City faces.
Stats from the olden days of soccer are a bit murky, but it’s fair to say that no one — not even Pele or Maradona — has had a season quite like Haaland’s.
It’s hard to describe to non-sports fans just how dominate his performance is, but maybe this highlight reel will do him justice. Normally it takes a whole career to put together a video like this, but this is all from just this season. To make things even better, he seems to be a relatively laid back, fun-loving guy — a rare quality for the one world’s best athletes.
Cat of the Week
Have you ever seen a cat with a goatee? Well, you have now. Meet Cosmo, who’s currently up for adoption at Baypath.
That’s a wrap on this issue. Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions or feedback, let me know by replying to this email. Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already, and if you can afford to support my work, please consider a paid subscription.