Court rules Berkshire Hathaway must defend Trulieve in trial over cannabis worker’s death & more related News Here

The case arose from the death of Lorna McMurray, a worker at a cannabis production facility in Holyoke, Massachusetts. McMurray worked in the pre-roll production room, where grinding machines broke hemp flower into smaller pieces for pre-roll production. The process produced large amounts of cannabis dust into the air, and workers were often covered from head to toe in “kief”, a sticky powder produced during the refinement process. The facility’s ventilation system was supposed to filter out debris but this was not always the case. McMurray suffered an asthma attack after inhaling moldy cannabis dust, was hospitalized, returned to the same role, and had a second, fatal attack within two months. Federal safety investigators attributed his death to occupational asthma from exposure to ground hemp.