Issue 67: That's A Wrap
The Burn After Reading Weekly Newsletter Is Ending, But A New Chapter Begins
Hey Friends,
After 67 issues and about a year and a half of publication, it’s time to move on to a new chapter.
This will be the final issue of the Burn After Reading weekly newsletter.
This may seem like bad news, but the end of Burn After Reading as we know it is happening for a very good reason: I’ve accepted a full-time job as a Staff Writer for Worcester Business Journal, where I’ll be covering the manufacturing, real estate, and cannabis beats.
I’m really excited to have the opportunity to advance my career and to take on a whole new set of challenges. While I’m sad to be ending the weekly newsletter, the opportunity to write for an respected local publication in the city I love was just too good to pass up. I have a lot to learn about my new additional news beats and the ins-and-outs of business journalism, but I can’t wait to get started.
I may still use this platform to occasionally share information that I think might be of interest to readers, including links to my work at WBJ and important news from other markets that has caught my eye. With that being said, my full-time focus for the foreseeable future is going to be on this new endeavor.
So while this is the end of B.A.R as we know it, I hope this new chapter allows me to provide even more value to readers.
I want to sincerely thank all subscribers and everyone else who has supported my career up until this point. My appreciation is impossible to put into words. Your support and encouragement is the only reason I’ve made it this far.
I didn’t build Burn After Reading, we all did.
[For Paid Subscribers: I’ll be pausing your subscriptions today so you will not be subject to any additional charges. For yearly subscribers, I’ll send out details early next week regarding refunds of the rest of your balance. I want to sincerely thank those who have financially supported this endeavor. This support has been critical for me in the last few months, particularly since the Hollywood strikes put an end to my side hustle of doing background extra work.]
So….for one final time….let’s get into it.
This week, I provide part two of my look into OSHA’s investigation of Trulieve. While part one was a bit more of a narrative, I wanted to use part two as more of a round-up of other details of the investigation that I think the public should be aware of.
- Eric
OSHA Trulieve Investigation: Part Two
OSHA Records Show The Agency Changed Public Descriptions of Fatal Incident Immediately After A Conversation With Trulieve’s Lawyer
While the details surrounding the lack of proper air filtration were perhaps the most revelatory aspects of OSHA’s investigation, there was also a number of details included in the agency’s documents that shed light on how this inquiry was conducted.
[SEE THE FULL OSHA DOCUMENTS HERE]
Public Inspection Page Edits
In August 2022, a Trulieve employee emailed OSHA to inform them that William E. Burton III, an attorney with Fox Rothschild LLP, would be the new point of contact for discussing the possibility of a settlement.
When details of McMurrey’s death became national news in the fall of 2022, Burton — a lawyer experienced in dealing with OSHA and representing large alcohol companies — called the agency to discuss the media attention that the case was receiving.
According to OSHA’s case file diary of the investigation, an investigator had a phone conversation with Burton on October 6 regarding “media coverage & [the] public site accident investigation summary,” a reference to the page on the agency’s website that provided details about the case.
One day later, the public investigation summary page was edited to remove key details about the case. The case file diary showed that an OSHA employee called Burton to notify him that the changes had been made.
In a statement to Burn After Reading, a Department of Labor spokesperson defended the edits made to the public inspection page:
The language was updated to correct grammatical errors and to more precisely describe the circumstances of the employee’s death based on the most current information. Employers who are inspected and issued citations have rights and responsibilities under the OSHA Act and OSHA encourages employers to call the local OSHA area office to informally discuss any issues related to the inspection or citations issued. Informal discussions can lead to informal settlement agreements between OSHA and the employer resolving disputed issues. Further, the employer has the right to formally contest citations and penalties and formal contest of citations and penalties can result in a formal settlement agreement.
The public inspection page was eventually updated to include the information that can still be seen today, but the original edits made on October 7 did not include a more precise description of the events; OSHA’s own records show that the original description of the event was removed and replaced with text that simply said “To Be Added Later.”
“Marketing Concern”
Trulieve’s pushback against OSHA’s findings were not limited to the details of the public inspection page.
While employees had watched McMurrey’s breathing problems worsen the longer she worked at the facility, Trulieve management insisted that ground cannabis should not be considered hazardous, according to notes taken by an OSHA investigator during the company’s informal conference.
The notes indicate that Trulieve was worried that ground cannabis being labeled as a hazardous material could be a “marketing concern” for the company.
Pesticides
In addition to details regarding OSHA’s investigation into McMurrey’s death, the documents also gave insight into how some large indoor cannabis cultivations were handling pest control at a time where Massachusetts had some of the strictest pesticide rules in the country.
Pesticides that were inside the facility included Mammoth brand CannControl and MildewCure. Both of these products contain active ingredients that were on the relatively small list of minimum risk compounds that was used by the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Regulation to determine what was allowed for use on cannabis. (This was before MDAR overhauled the state’s pesticide rules in late 2022.)
Other products that were in the facility included Procidic2, Brandt Super Wetter, PH Down Liquid, PH Up Liquid, and TetraCURB organic pesticide.
While the safe use of these products was outside the scope of OSHA’s investigation, the report conducted by the Office of Occupational Medicine and Nursing noted that there were hazards involving “eye and skin protection when handling the chemicals in the growing area.”
Notifying Next of Kin
On Jan. 12, 2022, Douglas Parker, Assistant Secretary at the Department of Labor, sent the mother of Lorna McMurrey a letter, which read in part:
Please accept my heartfelt condolences on the tragic death of [redacted], Ms. Lorna McMurrey. Please be assured the United States Department of Labor/OSHA is investigating the circumstances surrounding Ms. McMurrey’s death. We realize that the results of this investigation are very important to you, so we will inform you of our findings as soon as the investigation is completed.
Almost a year later, McMurrey’s friends and family would find out the findings of the investigation.
But it wasn’t OSHA who first notified them.
Instead, records show that Trulieve published the press release regarding the agreement before the agency notified McMurrey’s next of kin of the settlement.
In an email that appeared to be sent to a legal representative of McMurrey’s next of kin, an OSHA employee explained what happened.
“Normally I send out finalized settlements to the family with a letter and conversation, but Trulieve already did a press release. The settlement between OSHA and Trulieve was signed yesterday afternoon,” the email read.
State and Federal Interaction
In response to a question asking what steps the federal government has taken to protect cannabis workers from occupational asthma and other risks associated with the legal cannabis industry, a Department of Labor spokesperson released the following statement:
OSHA has been working with the State of Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission and Department of Health to provide education and information on the hazards discovered during the Trulieve Fatality inspection. The Massachusetts Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program in the Occupational Health Surveillance Program (OHSP) at the MA Department of Public Health is working on an alert related to the Trulieve case to notify employers of this hazard.
In addition, the OSHA National Office and MA DPH are working on submitting a publication to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) entitled “Fatal Occupational Asthma in Cannabis Production – Massachusetts, 2022”. Finally, the Springfield OSHA Office is doing outreach to provide local education and information on the health hazards associated with working in the industry.
OSHA’s investigation into Trulieve’s Holyoke facility has concluded, but the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission has not yet formally announced the findings of their own investigation into the company.
However, the Boston Globe recently reported that the commission notified Trulieve in September that it intends to impose a fine of $502,500 for violations that include failure to follow workplace safety operating procedures, failure to process marijuana in a safe and sanitary manner, and submitting untruthful information in an incident report, among other violations.
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New England
8 Things I Learned Operating A Legal Cannabis Business For 3 Months (Ruben Seyde | Talking Joints Memo)
5. Our top market is obviously Worcester, but what shocked me is our second biggest market— Leominster. Leominster’s population is around 44,000, whereas Worcester’s population is around 206,000, yet Leominster is right on the heels of Worcester in terms of sales. Now that I think about it, we gotta really analyze what we are doing right in Leominster and repeat that in our other marketing tactics.
ANALYSIS: In a world where a lot of cannabis business owners often only share information that makes themselves look awesome, I’ve enjoyed Ruben’s honest insight into operating a delivery business in the state’s current regulatory environment.
Rhode Island Officials Update Marijuana Sales Numbers Going Back To 2022 To Correct For ‘Human Error’ (Ben Adlin | Marijuana Moment)
Rhode Island officials have quietly published updated marijuana sales numbers stretching back to the launch of the state’s adult-use market in December 2022, fixing discrepancies in the figures that sometimes amounted to tens of thousands of dollars.
The adjustment came in response to a request for clarification from Marijuana Moment after the state Department of Business Regulation published its monthly sales records from September. Initially, retail totals reported by the state didn’t match up with the sum of reported medical and recreational sales.
ANALYSIS: Whoops! While this was an unfortunate mistake, it’s nice to see that the employee who made the errors owned up to it publicly. Luckily the graph I made last week wasn’t using the state’s combined totals, so it should still be accurate (assuming this is the only error they made).
Rest of U.S / National
2023 Cannabis Compensation Survey Summary Report (FutureSense)
FutureSense LLC, MJBizDaily, Green Leaf Payroll & Business Solutions, Western Management Group, and NCIA have joined forces to aggregate and analyze compensation market data expressly for the cannabis industry.
The 2023 Cannabis Compensation Summary Report presents an overview of cannabis compensation data, trends, and analysis. It includes data for 100+ unique positions within the cannabis industry.
ANALYSIS: Every cannabis worker should probably take a look at this survey. Compensation is going to vary based on location and other factors, but it’s good to know what others are making.
One takeaway I had is that the average brand ambassador makes about $15K more than the average cultivation technician.
Study Finds Cannabis Users Had Better Covid-19 Outcomes (A.J. Herrington | Forbes)
“Marijuana smokers had better outcomes and mortality compared to non-users,” the authors of the study wrote in their conclusion. “The beneficial effect of marijuana use may be attributed to its potential to inhibit viral entry into cells and prevent the release of proinflammatory cytokines, thus mitigating cytokine release syndrome.”
ANALYSIS: This is probably more scientific than my theory, which is that COVID viruses were getting too stoned to remember what they were supposed to be doing.
In all seriousness, this is an intriguing piece of information — but like a lot of early COVID studies — we’re going to need more data before making any broad conclusions.
International
🇻🇨 ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES GETS ITS FIRST GANJA LOUNGE IN CRUISE SHIP PORT (M. Omari Jackson | GanjaActivist.com Magazine)
St. Vincent and the Grenadines will see its first cannabis consumption space open this Friday, Oct 20th at the Kingstown Cruise Ship port. In the space formerly known as “Melting Pot”, business owner, Marcia Deane-Clarke, will launch Therapy Restaurant and Lounge and Greenhouse Café at Therapy, a cannabis consumption lounge. Residents and visitors with medical marijuana cards will be able to purchase and consume medicinal cannabis and marijuana infused drinks at a safe space in Kingstown.
ANALYSIS: While this is not the first cannabis cafe in the Caribbean, the fact that this one is located in a cruise ship port allows even the most timid of tourists to have the chance to partake. These types of cafes could help alleviate problems that some cruise lines have had with on-board cannabis consumption.
In what can only be described as a strange coincidence, this week’s welcome distraction is… the Worcester Business Journal! Grab a subscription today.
To bring this thing full circle, this week’s cat of the week was also the original COTW: Brockton.
