It is part two of a 2-part series which examines the federal regulations that oversee the U.S. Cannabis industry and their fines for worker safety. Part one can be found here.
While federal workplace safety inspectors may be in the process of ramping up their investigations of marijuana job sites – to the tune of expensive fines and time-consuming red tape – the move isn’t all that surprising for those already familiar with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Kim Anzarut is a principal with Allay Consulting. She said that dealing with OSHA has become a normal part of business in America for marijuana businesses.
Anzarut has been consulting cannabis businesses on OSHA compliance since 2017. He said that operators should expect to see more direct intervention from the agency in the future as the marijuana industry grows, partly because at least eight deaths have occurred at marijuana companies dating back to at least 2022.
“OSHA gets more and more involved when there are deaths. It’s an important issue.” Anzarut stated that OSHA was not performing their duties. The trend is that OSHA will be more active.
Protecting workers
Anzarut explained that one of the most important things marijuana entrepreneurs should know is that, so far, the federal agency only performs inspections on an ad hoc basis because it does not have a cannabis specific wing.
Anzarut explained, “They do not have any specific cannabis regulation.” So they are only visiting places that there has been a complaint in many states. Somebody calls and says, ‘I was injured,’ or ‘This is an unsafe work environment,’ which we’ve run into many times… They don’t have the manpower, the funding, to go out and do regular inspections. It’s a real shame for the workers of the cannabis industry.”
Anzarut says that OSHA’s high fines can cause a lot of headaches, especially for small operators who aren’t used to managing businesses with such strict regulations and compliance.
Often, violations and fines issued – along with mitigation recommendations – will depend greatly on the actual OSHA inspector performing workplace checks, making dealing with OSHA extremely subjective. Anzarut explained that not all violations carry the same penalties. Instead, the severity of the penalty can vary depending on the OSHA inspector.
Anzarut explained that the decision is subjective. “They can record all these violations, and depending on how bad a violation is, they can say, ‘Okay, we want the highest fine for this or the lowest fine.’ … If the regulator is logical and kind, essentially if you put in a corrective action, they can change that fine. The fine can be canceled completely.
Anzarut explained that even when a fine is large, the regulators may lower it if there’s a good-faith effort to fix whatever issue was raised. Anzarut said that the largest fine she has ever dealt with was about $100,000. However, she managed to get it reduced to around $20,000 after working on “corrective plans” for her client and sending them to OSHA.
Anzarut stated that most fines are reduced if you correct the problem.
Anzarut stressed that OSHA violations can be fixed easily, sometimes even on site while the inspector is still there. This happens when it comes to misplaced documents or other relatively minor issues. Anzarut said that OSHA’s primary goal is to protect employees, not punish the industry.
Anzarut added that OSHA is more forgiving with firms who respond quickly to citations by submitting written plans of corrective actions. Anzarut said that the downside is that OSHA’s filing deadline is usually only 15 days following a violation, making it difficult to correct OSHA violations.
They give you enough time to find the documents and correct mistakes. Anzarut explained that the scramble is expensive, chaotic and stressful.
According to records of the agency, cannabis businesses of all sizes have received fines that are in the thousands.
OSHA and cannabis: a changing relationship
OSHA issued a warning in November that marijuana businesses must treat “ground cannabis dust” as a work-place hazard. The death of Lorna MacMurrey, a former Trulieve Cannabis Corp. worker in 2022 was attributed to ground cannabis dust after her severe asthma attack. In 2023, Illinois also saw similar deaths at cannabis facilities.
Anzarut stated that, despite all the attention that has been given to the cannabis dust classification as a hazardous substance, insiders in the industry have known that this is a danger for workers. However, the OSHA fines and worker deaths are what brought the issue into the public’s consciousness.
Anzarut explained that “in almost every grow or facility that grinds, people complain that they are unable to breathe, that they cough constantly, and can’t stay in the room longer than one hour without being miserable.”
In the early days of my cannabis consulting career (in 2017), this was not a health hazard. She said that people didn’t know the grinding room was dangerous. “Now when we get on calls with people, they’re like, ‘Hey, what do we do about the grinding room? What can we do to prevent this from happening to us? … After that death, the Trulieve death, that is when people started asking about that particular issue within their facility.”
Anzarut still expects OSHA’s involvement with cannabis businesses to increase over time. This is partly due to the fact that the inspectors of the agency are learning about the marijuana business. This, Anzarut said, will naturally lead to a cycle of increasing inspections, violations and reinspections as the cannabis industry evolves.
This increase in OSHA enforcement is already happening, as a Colorado pilot program was announced back in September. Anzarut says OSHA inspectors can learn more by interacting with marijuana companies. They will also be able to better understand the differences between cannabis and other industries.
Anzarut pointed out that states were receiving funding for an OSHA in their state. “They put out a press release essentially to all of the people in the industry and said, ‘Hey, we’re really worried about worker safety. “We are going to create an OSHA cannabis program in Colorado.”
Anzarut stated that the program is likely to help, but it can also act as a sort of regulatory Trojan Horse, since OSHA inspectors may find major violations in Colorado marijuana businesses that owners were unaware existed.
Anzarut explained that the death of these people was responsible for this trend. They don’t like an industry being under the radar and so more people are injured.