“We cannot continue to operate in a system where products are tested and sold and regulated while the people producing them are left unprotected and unmonitored”
It is not lost on this writer and observer of the Massachusetts market that the woes and lows of marijuana business owners are prioritized over those of the workers scaffolding this industry.
Talking Joints Memo is part of the problem. We probably publish a hundred-plus articles covering rock bottom prices and revenue for every mention we make of workplace conditions and safety.
This week, though, the voices of those bearing this industry’s silent burden rang out. And they had an audience in Cannabis Control Commission members and supporting staffers, who held a hearing on these issues Wednesday in Worcester.
Coalition leader’s powerful comments
Danny Carson Stair has led the charge on cannabis workplace reform in the commonwealth, and provided the first testimony. The co-founder of the Coalition for Cannabis Worker Safety opened and closed his statement acknowledging Lorna McMurrey, his former friend and colleague who died in 2022 after going into cardiac arrest at the since-shuttered Trulieve cultivation in Holyoke.
“Lorna should still be alive,” Carson Stair told the room. “Her death was not an isolated incident. It was a warning, and since then there have been additional reported cases of severe worker harm and potential deaths related to working conditions inside cannabis facilities. This is not theoretical, this is not rare, this is happening. There is a fundamental truth that must guide this conversation—worker safety and consumer safety are inseparable.”
He continued: “Over the last several years, I’ve personally reviewed over 100 off-the shelf cannabis products across Massachusetts, and when I encounter heavily mold contaminated products, I do not just see a consumer risk. I see a worker exposure warning because if contaminated product is leaving a facility, then workers are being exposed first, longer, and at higher concentrations inside those environments.
“In addition to that, I’ve spoken directly with approximately 150 cannabis workers and former workers across Massachusetts and the most persistent concern I hear across roles, companies, and regions is about air quality inside post-harvest and production environments. Workers describe environments filled with particulate matter, dust, and aerosolized contaminants, often with little to no meaningful ventilation or protections. This issue is most prevalent in large cultivation and production facilities, but it’s not limited to them. It exists in smaller operations as well, and just as concerning as the exposure itself is the silence around it.”
Carson Stair noted the clear impediments to course correction: “Workers are afraid to speak up, they fear physical retaliation, mental stress, and … legal consequences for raising concerns about their working conditions, so many of them stay quiet.”
Carson Stair added: “Workers are the front line of contact, workers are the most exposed, workers are the most at risk, and workers are not separate from the public. They are the public. They go home to their families, they are in our communities, so when we talk about public health we must include them and right now there are more than 500 individuals who have signed a petition calling for this commission to take action to protect cannabis workers. That is not a small number. That is a clear and growing demand for accountability and we need to be honest about how we got here.
“Before recreational cannabis, the Department of Public health had oversight of worker health and safety in the state. But when the state transitioned to adult use, that responsibility shifted to the commission and in transition something critical was lost. There’s still no meaningful enforceable regulations specifically to protect cannabis workers, no clear standards for air quality, no required ventilation protections, no routine oversight of workplace exposure risks, and no transparent investigations into working conditions inside of the facilities. We cannot continue to operate in a system where products are tested and sold and regulated while the people producing them are left unprotected and unmonitored.”
The union perspective
Two members of the UFCW Local 1445, which represents cannabis workers at multiple facilities in Massachusetts, spoke about conditions they have seen during their time in the industry. Saying that Carson Stair covered the general basics in his comments, Henry added the perspective of a heavy equipment maintenance worker.
“Being in that part of the equipment, I see a lot of the stuff that just gets sucked out of those rooms,” he said. “From seeing that there is no standardization, at what point are they actually going to start cleaning out the duct work and start looking for mold, and start paying attention to what is really there?”
Henry added: “Where is the authority figure in all of this? I have been in this for five years and I have very rarely seen the commission step foot on the property. We’re kind of stuck in an area where nobody’s paying attention to what safety hazards there are. I believe that inspections would help, especially if you showed up unannounced. You’d see what is going on, and the lack of ventilation.”
Jacob, also with the UFCW Local 1445, works in packaging, and runs a team of about 20 people. He spoke about air quality, a common theme in the hearing: “The amount of dust that comes through is really concerning, and it hasn’t really been taken seriously. When people ask questions about it, they get retaliated against.”
He said the union has helped raise some of those questions, but he would like to see more people who work near dust and machines have more significant protections.
Regarding the current workplace safety regulations
Melissa Rutherford spoke on behalf of 1620 Consultants, which does compliance and risk management consulting and contracts with licensees statewide. She addressed three issues that she called interconnected: the “existing but under-enforced regulatory mandate for OSHA-consistent workplace safety,” the “failure to establish minimum worker safety training standards for licensees,” and the “need for the commission’s investigation enforcement staff to be trained to recognize and evaluate workplace safety compliance during inspections.”
Rutherford said that the CCC doesn’t need to “update, change, or promulgate additional regulations to require licensees to consider worker safety.” Rather, the consultant said, “it already exists [in Massachusetts law],” which “expressly requires that every licensed marijuana establishment maintain written policies and procedures to promote workplace safety consistent with the standards set forth under OSHA.”
‘An environment of fraud’
Chris Hudalla, the founder and CSO of ProVerde Laboratories in Milford, has for years spoken out about various testing-related concerns with Mass cannabis. He went even further than Rutherford, who emphasized that some existing regulations could be helpful if more prudently implemented; Hudalla said the current climate is overregulated in some ways that are actually harmful.
“Consumer safety, worker safety, laboratory competence, and integrity are inextricably linked,” he said. “For microbial testing, for example, for total yeast and mold [TYM], the limits that are currently enforced are two times more stringent than what is prescribed in the Massachusetts regulation. One might think that limits more stringent than regulatory requirements would lead to increased consumer safety. However, that’s not the case. It has caused … an environment of fraud.”
Hudalla pointed to data he said lays this all out clearly, adding: “When laboratories are passing product that does not meet regulatory requirements, consumer health and safety are certainly compromised. However, consumer exposure is limited based on the periodic use of product. What has largely been ignored is these fraudulent results … are important knowledge, indicators of proliferating microbial contamination within their facility. The facility contamination could go unchecked, immersing workers in constant exposure to these harmful contaminants.”
