John SchroyerMarijuana industry giant Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (CSE: TRUL) (OTCQX: TCNNF) continues to be haunted by the ghost of Lorna McMurrey, the former Massachusetts worker who died in early 2022 due to working conditions at one of its now-shuttered manufacturing facilities. This week, the Florida-based multistate operator agreed to a state fine of $350,000 in connection with McMurrey’s death.
The fine is a settlement with Massachusetts state regulators, Masslive.com reported, and is in addition to a federal fine of $14,500 already levied by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration following McMurrey’s passing.
Although Trulieve pulled out of Massachusetts last year, the state Cannabis Control Commission wasn’t yet finished investigating McMurrey’s death from January 2022, when she collapsed due to an asthma attack while on the job at a Trulieve facility in the town of Holyoke, before passing away days later at a local hospital.
McMurrey’s death was attributed to her inhaling ground cannabis dust while on the job at the Trulieve manufacturing plant, and is the first known fatality of a marijuana industry worker due to such circumstances. Another cannabis worker at a production facility in Illinois owned by Green Thumb Industries died last summer under similar conditions, and reportedly died after developing “severe breathing problems.”
Acting Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission Chair Ava Callender Concepcion said this week she hoped the Trulieve settlement would lead “to a better and safer industry throughout the country, not just in the commonwealth,” Masslive.com reported.
Trulieve didn’t respond to requests for comment from the news outlet.
The settlement is separate from an ongoing active civil wrongful death lawsuit filed in November by McMurrey’s family against Trulieve in Hampden County Superior Court, which charges the MSO with negligence in protecting its own workers. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for May 2026, according to court records.
