CCC found that Curaleaf “failed to utilize best practices to limit contamination of Marijuana … and exhibited negligence in its cultivation operations.”
Four months after the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission fined Trulieve $350,000 for noncompliance associated with the 2022 death of Lorna McMurrey at that company’s former Holyoke cultivation, this week the agency announced enforcement actions against two other national businesses that operate in the Bay State—Ascend Wellness, and Curaleaf.
The former’s problems stem from “substantial” inventory and product-tracking issues. In the case of Curaleaf, investigators found that the company “failed to utilize best practices to limit contamination of Marijuana … and exhibited negligence in its cultivation operations at its Amesbury and Webster Facilities.”
Curaleaf
According to the CCC’s final order and stipulated agreement, “On April 6, 2020, [Curaleaf] hired a third-party contractor to treat the exterior of its Amesbury Facility for crawling insects in connection with general lawn maintenance. During that maintenance a third-party contractor applied Talstar Professional, a pesticide containing Bifenthrin, on the exterior of the Amesbury Facility on a monthly basis from May 2020 until September 2020.”
“The Amesbury Facility,” however, “was not properly sealed from outside contaminants. This failure led to the contamination of the Amesbury Facility and Marijuana cultivated therein, which risked the public health, safety, and welfare.” Furthermore, Curaleaf “did not take any additional precautions to prevent the contamination of Marijuana cultivated at said facility while application of pesticides to the exterior of the building was ongoing.”
Some of the details include:
On December 17, 2020, an Independent Testing Laboratory (ITL) issued two Certificates of Analysis … relative to plant samples originating from the Amesbury Facility One COA detected the Bifenthrin at a concentration exceeding 10 parts per billion (ppb) … and the second COA showed a detection of Bifenthrin Below the Quantification Limit (BQL).
On December 29, 2020, after receiving the COAs indicating bifenthrin contamination on Marijuana grown at Respondent’s Amesbury Facility, Respondent’s employee performed a “full chemical inspection” of the Amesbury Facility and identified at least two unauthorized chemicals held on-site—Ancora, a microbial insecticide, and Kelp4lLess, a plant growth regulator.
On January 6, 2021, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (“MDAR”) and Commission investigators conducted a joint unannounced inspection at the Amesbury Facility. … During the inspection, MDAR staff collected samples from various locations at the Amesbury Facility for analysis by the Massachusetts Pesticide Analysis Laboratory. … Commission investigators discovered pesticide application forms that documented Respondent’s application of a mixture of ZeroTol 2.0 and CapSil in multiple flower rooms during various stages of growth.
On April 6, 2021, after receiving COAs indicating that two test samples originating from the Webster Facility tested positive for the pesticide Imidacloprid, Respondent completed an internal report that identified several problems at the Webster Facility including [Curaleaf’s] failure to properly seal gaps and leaks in doorways, improperly sealed ducts, leaving doors open for hours during harvesting, and allowing contractors to prop exterior doors open for several hours at a time.
For its “stipulated remedy,” dated Oct. 7, 2024, Curaleaf “agrees to pay” an $80,000 monetary fine, and submits to a “six-month probationary period” that comes with a specific penalty schedule for “any pesticide contamination detection on Marijuana cultivated” at either of the company’s two Mass facilities.
In 2019, the CCC fined Curaleaf $250,000 for failing to comply with regulations around a change of ownership. The company has also caught heat from regulators in other markets; in 2022, it settled a class-action lawsuit for $100,000 in Oregon over a manufacturing error that resulted in CBD drops that contained THC.
Ascend
According to the CCC, on Aug. 16, 2022, the “Regional Vice President of Compliance for [Ascend Mass] emailed Commission Investigators to notify the Commission of inventory discrepancies discovered at the Boston Store following an internal audit.” Ten days later, the same VP “sent Investigators a follow-up incident report detailing the inventory discrepancies, including several inventory-related mistakes and failure to follow Respondent’s Inventory and Recordkeeping SOP.”
“The incident report described several compliance issues that were discovered following Respondent’s inventory audit. [Ascend] staff did not conduct monthly inventory audits since ‘at least May 2022’ and audits that were performed were done using its Point of Sale (POS) system, LeafLogix (now known as Dutchie), instead of Metrc. As a result, staff failed to identify ‘synching [sic] errors’ between LeafLogix and Metrc during operations.”
“Further, [Ascend Mass] staff did not investigate the inventory discrepancies to resolve them within 24 hours and did not notify the Commission of the discrepancies. Respondent staff also misrepresented the location of inventory in Metrc by placing inventory items into its virtual quarantine room when the physical products could not be located.”
Details include:
The discrepancies emerged because Marijuana and Marijuana Products were set aside for pre-orders and were marked as sold. Sales staff then used the set aside pre-orders to fulfill orders from walk-in customers. This practice resulted in sales staff refilling the preorders, sometimes from an entirely new product batch. This caused pre-ordered items to be recorded as sold, yet appear as physically present in the store.
[Ascend] had determined that its inventory discrepancies were due to errors in the receiving process, staff neglecting to virtually destroy products marked for waste, and staff improperly documenting product returns. [According to an] internal assessment, estimating four hundred sixty-three (463) physical packages that Respondent could not reconcile with its virtual, Metrc inventory.
[On Oct. 27, 2022], “Investigators conducted an unannounced inspection at the Boston store where they observed substantial Metrc deficiencies.” Among other problems, they found “Marijuana and Marijuana Products tracked in Respondent’s virtual rooms—identified as “Batch Swap” and “Vault”—in Metrc could not be physically found onsite at the Boston store.” Investigators also “found that customers’ IDs were not checked until the customer reached the sales floor and visitors were allowed to enter the premises without being checked in to the visitor log.”
“In lieu of proceeding with an administrative hearing and subsequent proceedings,” Ascend “agrees to pay a monetary fine in the amount of $85,000.” They’ll also enter a 12-month probationary period, during which the company “shall identify an audit manager who will serve as primary point-of-contact and shall conduct a twice monthly audit of all the Marijuana and Marijuana Products at its Boston facility, for a total of twenty-four (24) inventory audits.”
Commissioners unanimously approved both agreements during their Oct. 10 meeting. They are the fifth and sixth enforcement actions this year, bringing the total in fines levied in 2024 to $785,000. That money goes into the state’s Marijuana Regulation Fund, with 15% of that revenue deposited into the Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund.
