Independent Journalist Grant Ellis – Smith in Massachusets has our first corporate snaffle of the year..
Chaos has taken hold at MSO Ascend Wellness in New Bedford on Monday, per my sources, as corporate leadership sent in an out-of-state “supervisor,” without a valid Massachusetts CCC agent badge, who handled product, disrupted ongoing Union activity by staff members, and, allegedly, lost over $2,000 from a register within hours of arriving at the location.
According to one source, this out-of-state, non-badged, supervisor began demanding that existing local management “follow staff members who attempt to make contact with their Union” and, when concerns were raised, this out of state supervisor responded by firing a member of management who would not go along with the plan to spy on staffers attempting to contact their union.
These concerning developments, which occurred today, arrive amid reports from sources that Ascend’s New Bedford location is down to a single , malfunctioning, ID scanner for patron’s entering the facility and presents a number of active safety hazards to staff members.
Furthermore, say sources, Ascend is still paying out staff member tips on a bi-weekly basis (despite just settling a lawsuit related to how those tips were handled).
Earlier this week, I reported that major budtender tips theft class action lawsuit involving Ascend was settled for $150,000, and each impacted class member will receive $1,500 if their claims are approved.
Read the notice of proposed settlement here – https://drive.google.com/file/
Read my original story covering this lawsuit, from December of 2023, here – https://www.patreon.com/posts/
According to the now-settled complaint, Ascend supervisors (who may not collect tips per state law) were allowed to share in tips that customers were told went to budtenders. Furthermore, says the class action complaint, tips were not paid to budtender staff on a daily basis as required (instead, they were paid biweekly).
In recent months, Ascend has come under further public scrutiny as a result of a jaw-droppingly series of whistleblower reports (first released on this feed) indicating the firm knowingly exposed patients to moldy products, created dangerous working conditions, did not fix flooded storage areas, and facilitated serious “off the books” surplus product deliveries. Read that story here – https://www.patreon.com/posts/
I also reported that Abner Kurtin, an owner of Ascend Wellness, along with being the subject of serious prior DV allegations, also allegedly owns/controls between 6-9 licenses in the state of Massachusetts (other reports also came out indicating that Ascend was behind a failed summer, 2024, lobbying effort to increase the number of licenses that a single entity can own/control in Massachusetts).
That reporting, in turn, was further compounded by the release of data from Danny Carson of Massachusetts Coalition for Cannabis Worker Health and Safety earlier in 2024 indicating that one cultivation company owned by Ascend, MassGrow, was allegedly producing moldy product and, in turn, using testing lab “fraud” in order to get that dangerous product to market.
Further, I reported that Ascend has connections (via one of its co-founders) to a secretive Beacon Hill lobbying firm linked to former Massachusetts CCC Executive Director Shawn Collins – https://www.patreon.com/posts/
