As many readers are well aware we are producing a story – set to be released December 15th – about a lawsuit against OGEN, a craft cannabis producer in Calgary, Alberta. The lawsuit is by Daniel Saez, a former Strainhunter’s staff member and Master Grower at OGEN. We have attached key screenshots from his statement of claim below but the long and the short of it is Saez alleges OGEN fired him without cause. The company disputes this but as we interview more and more eye witnesses we are piecing together a much more complete story.

The President of OGEN, Darren Brisebois, initially ignored our request for an interview. After two months had passed he reached out because he believes we are writing a biased story about the company. He offered to fly our staff out to their facility to meet current employees. We declined due to ongoing pandemic concerns (avoid travel unless necessary to prevent further spread of the virus until a larger population is vaccinated) and ethical considerations.

We are still waiting for that phone call from him and haven’t heard anything after our second request for an interview – he is willing to spend thousands of dollars to meet us in person but won’t take a phone call. In the mean time we wanted to outline our ethical framework as this concept seems to be missing from a large swath of the cannabis industry. In particular, a proper ethical framework is crucial to the trust a journalist and a reader share.

In a world of fake news, an overworked judicial system and feral, ravenous, short-sighted financiers Stash places itself with the minimum wage worker and immigrants who work with little protection or recourse in the face of abuse. We use our amplified voices to speak up for communities who are over-represented in prisons for cannabis crimes. We don’t chase trends and we don’t trade access for good publicity.

CODE OF ETHICS

1. If we have made an error we will report that error and issue a correction on our blog, social media platforms and in an email to our readers.

2. If we are reporting on a story involving conflicting truths we will report both sides as much as we are able to. If new evidence emerges see point #1.

3. We do not accept weed, merch, product or any other gifts from subjects of our reporting.

The Society of Professional Journalists include the following in their code of ethics:
“Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Give voice to the voiceless”
You can read their entire code of ethics here.

If you or anyone you know has a story to tell please reach out to us on our contact page. We can take information anonymously or completely off-the-record.

Stash Magazine Volume 2 Hardcover Edition

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