Remember the Discovery Channel show “MythBusters”? Well, here in Maine we sure have a real moldy mystery on our hands. Some might be thinking I’m talking about the “42% of medical failed adult use testing standards” that Maine OCP reported they tested “randomly” last year to mainstream media, but the REAL mold mystery began on a moist morning on September 3rd.
On the morning of the 3rd, Maine OCP posted on social media that “OCP staff temporarily unavailable on site due to office maintenance. Please call 207-287-3282 for immediate assistance“. And you might ask yourself why the fuck does that matter at all to anyone ever.
Well lets start from the beginning. It all started with a cough. Yes, a cough. Well, multiple coughs. Now you are probably thinking I’m fucking crazy, but let me explain.
Director John Hudak was doing several cannabis lectures/testimonies in the previous weeks. One at the end of July being in front of the Health and Human Services Committee meeting on child welfare, where he coughed a lot through almost what seemed the entire testimony, which I thought was weird/funny and personally didn’t even think anything of it at the time other than meme material.
Then that week, Maine OCP had to “postpone” a “Listening Session”. Later, in mid-August, Director Hudak appeared for a “Federal Marijuana Reform: Effects and Echos of Rescheduling” meeting, and again, Director Hudak was seen struggling through conversations, trying to hold back coughing fits. One viewer, Cole of @TheColeMemoPodcast, said, “John Hudak was coughing up a storm the whole time.” “…yeah there are plenty of times where he is just coughing so bad.”
But again, these coughing episodes really didn’t mean a damn thing, just kinda like, wow guy has been sick now for at least 2 weeks. At this point, for timeline sake, we are in mid-August, and we have yet to reschedule the “Listening Session”. Late August I starting getting messages from different people saying that the Office of Cannabis Policy’s office was “full of mold” one source described.
Another separate source went as far as saying that “multiple people had to file for workman’s compensation,” and at this point, I was intrigued, especially because I knew the sources (in this example) didn’t talk to each other at all but told similar stories. About a week later, on September 3rd, the department posted about the “office maintenance,” and that’s when all hell broke loose.
On September 4th (the day after the department’s post), I personally emailed and called the PR department/ any department asking for a comment about the possible mold in their office (with zero response still seven days later). I shared that email on my Instagram page, and that is when I got another solid lead.
“I am so glad you finally know!! I’ve known for a bit, and all that was discussed was how great it will be when you have this jewel to play with,” another source in the DM.
This lead was huge and really busted this story into override because not only did it imply that this was a possible secret that the Office of Cannabis Policy didn’t want to leak, but several others knew about the possible mold in the office and purposely kept it away from me personally.
Due to the fact Maine OCP still didn’t answer my email or calls after 3 days I decided on Friday, September 6th to take a field trip to the cannabis policy’s office in Augusta to see if I could get some solid answers.
When I pulled up to the office building, my suspicions only grew larger. The first thing I noticed was that the department office was on the basement/ground floor, which, if you know anything about a basement/ground floor in Maine in an old building to boot, is an ideal climate for mold.
The second thing I noticed was two large HVAC vans parked around the back, going into the basement/ground floor. At that point, myth or mold, I had to go inside to try and get some answers.
As I entered the ground floor, I saw double doors with one of the doors that had the blinds pulled all the way down. I knock, I say “Hello? Is anyone there?” just like my calls and emails, no response but I wasn’t going to stop there, I wanted to get some sort of answer, really from the department itself, but clearly they can’t get back to me in any capacity. So I started wandering the building like a lost wook in the woods until I found a human.
The first human I reached asked if they knew why OCP wasn’t in the office. She replied no and seemed slightly annoyed by my presence, but she walked me back down to where I came and knocked on the door like I did.
No response. I said thanks for trying and parted ways. So I walked around the building again hoping to see one of the HVAC guys, no luck. So I reentered the office building and went to a new floor to see if I could try to find someone else.
On the 3rd floor, I ran into some pretty nice folks. I explained to them that I was trying to find someone from the Office of Cannabis Policy and asked if they knew why OCP wasn’t here. The gentleman answered, “They change faces so much down there, it’s hard to keep track of when they are actually here or not.”
At that point, a different gentleman came around the desk and politely escorted me down to the first floor again. But this time, this person decided to knock on a different door around back. Unfortunately, there was still no answer. I thanked the gentleman for his time, and we parted ways.
Leaving the parking lot with more questions than answers, I started thinking about the WHYs. WHY could they just respond in the email? WHY can’t they just answer a phone call? Hell WHY does it even matter if they have mold in their office or not? Or why would they even want to keep it under wraps in the first place?
Hypothetically, what if Maine OCP mold is bad enough in the office that it could have contaminated other grow facilities? What if the samples they tested randomly last summer, 42% failed in their sample, were cross contaminated with office mold, unknowingly?
How did Maine OCP collect the samples? Is there body cam footage of the inspectors handling all 42% of the samples that failed? How many inspectors touched the samples? Did they use gloves? There are too many questions to not push.
So, while some might believe the rumored suspected mold in the office is a silly thing to worry about, one has to really step back and ask,
Is it myth? Or is it mold?
Ironically enough, after six days of silence from OCP, their first response on social media was the department’s first-ever recreational recall for YOU GUESS IT, mold. This started a frenzy of comments asking about the rumored office mold. But all OCP has to do is tell us. Is it a myth? Or is it mold?
Written By Derek Shirley
Check out more of Derek’s Maine Cannabis Coverage here at Beard Bros, A Look Into Maines Medical Cannabis Program And How It Continues to Outperform Its Adult Use Market.
Derek Shirley was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of 19, he received a felony for 4 ounces of cannabis. After, he became a “cannabis nomad” living in Ohio, Arizona, and Maine, which he now calls home, and lives with his wife Sequoia and son Haze.
Being a cannabis nomad had its advantages, like relying on all markets for his medical cannabis needs which gives him a unique perspective of the cannabis markets. Currently, Derek operates People Not Parties Consulting, which helps local people and small businesses navigate their local and state governments without picking a political party specializing in protecting and preserving the small medical cannabis farmers of Maine. For fun, Derek enjoys screen printing and making cannabis memes under the pseudonym @gettinghighwithcats on IG.
