THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

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Ist Issue February, 1969

U.S. INDICTS 15 DRUG COMPANIES

A United States federal grand jury has indicted 15 drug companies on criminal conspiracy charges involving

quinine and related drugs and

the Canadian government should see that similar action is taken, New Democratic

member of parliament Grace MacInnis told the House of Commons January 21st.

Discovering that quinidine sulphate pills jumped in price from $12.00 to $65.25 for 500, Mrs. MacInnis set about to find out why.

FROM PAGE ONE

"OVERTIME BAN?"

2. Impose a complete six- month ban on log exports.

3. Instruct the Board of line

dustrial Relations to stop issu- ing overtime permits in shingle, sawmill and plywood operations for the next three months.

In return, the Union would sit down with the companies to study means of increasing log production.

It was made clear at the meeting that the Union was not prepared to have loggers forced into overtime to achieve this goal. The Union representatives stated that log production could be increased by hiring more crews and doubling up on the shifts.

They pointed out that there

were hundreds of experienced unemployed loggers available for work and if the companies were really concerned about the log shortage they could solve the problem by putting these men to work.

The Union’s request for a six-month ban on log exports was rejected by Williston, who pointed out that log ex- porting came under the con- trol of both the provincial and federal governments,

He stated that he was pre- pared to study the matter with the Union and federal authorities but maintained that the amount of logs ex- ported was so _ insignificant that it was hardly worth dis-

‘cussing.

She found out that an inter- national cartel controls the supply of quinine and related drugs and has inflated the price of them as much as 500 per cent.

The quinidine pills are available in Great Britain for $7.50 for 500.

The U.S. government has maintained a stockpile of the drugs to help keep prices down, she said, but when it released a large part: of its stockpile, the cartel bought it up.

In its investigations, the U.S. Senate subcommittee on anti-trust and monopoly found that the price of bulk quinine had dropped from almost $6 an ounce to $2.53 but the price at the retail level stood firm.

The NDP MP from Van- couver-Kingsway asked why the Canadian authorities couldn’t follow the lead of the United States and indict the drug companies here under the Combines Investigation Act.

If the Act can’t be used for such purposes, it should be “amended or scrapped in fa- vour of an Act with teeth in it,” she demanded.

Out of This

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