THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

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of

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

I NEVER SEEN THAT MUCH SHRINKAGE . . . YOU
SURE YOU SET HER AT TH’ RIGHT TEMPERATURE?

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