DEA cracks down on money-making pot clinics

[Heidi]

Feds say Porsche-driving medical marijuana sellers are flouting the rules
LOS ANGELES - Federal agents trailed Sparky Rose as he drove a Porsche Carrera convertible to his medical marijuana clinic.

Under California law, clinics are supposed to dispense marijuana just to seriously ill people and clinic owners are to get only “reasonable compensation.” But to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the sports car suggested that Rose might be pocketing big money from his purportedly nonprofit clinic, New Remedies Cooperative.

Rose was arrested in October and accused of illegal drug trafficking — charges he denies. According to court papers, an investigation turned up records showing $2.3 million was deposited in a New Remedies bank account over eight months starting in December 2005, and Rose wrote himself weekly checks of $9,600.

<snip>

West Hollywood City Councilman Jeff Prang said the federal government should leave it to local governments to monitor and regulate marijuana dispensaries that provide relief for those suffering from cancer, Parkinson’s, AIDS and other debilitating diseases.

“It’s a real sad day for the DEA if these type of facilities are that high on the list of priorities,” he said.

More: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17558116/
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Anyone heard when the DEA will begin pursuing Bentley- and Maybach-drivin' CEOs of big pharma companies?

By my calculations, the guy referenced in the MSNBC article pays himself about $500,000 per year. By comparison, here are salaries of the CEOs some leading pharmaceutical companies.

*BMS: $31,424,000 including salary, bonus and other compensation in 1999.
**Pfizer: $16,419,270 in total compensation including stock option grants from Pfizer Inc. in 2005.
*Merck: $6,132,702 in total compensation including stock option grants* from Merck & Co. Inc. in 2005.
*Warn-Lam: $22,061,000 including salary, bonus and other compensation in 1999
**Schering-Plough: $18,553,024 in total compensation including stock option grants* from Schering-Plough Corporation in 2005.
**Abbott Laboratories: $14,499,982 in total compensation including stock option grants* from Abbott Laboratories in 2005.
**Eli Lilly and Company: $11,943,955 in total compensation including stock option grants from Eli Lilly and Company in 2005.
*AHP: $4,093,000, including salary, bonus and other compensation in 1999.
**AMGEN: $11,193,465 in total compensation including stock option grants from Amgen Inc. in 2005.
Pharm & Upjohn, $2,366,000 including salary, bonus and other compensation in 1999.

SOURCES:
*ACT UP/New York: http://www.actupny.org/reports/durban-licensing.html
**AFL/CIO: http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/ceou/database.cfm

[Tsiyu]

1. Makin lots of money is only allowed if you are a Republican

or if you donate to Repukes, as the big PharmCo's do.

Don't you know that?

The hypocrisy is stunning, no?

War on SOME Drugs And SOME Users is what I call it.

[Heidi]

2. It's a war on people, pure and simple.

:thumbsdown:

[Cobalt Violet]

5. And only if you cause suffering and death...

Not alleviate it. How dare the they make money helping people instead of hurting and killing them.

[Heidi]

6. Right on.

And how dare the pot clinics empower people to make their own decisions about their own medical care?

Thank you, Cobalt Violet. :thumbsup:

[youngdem]

3. I agree...Pharmaceutical companies should be prosecuted for price gouging

Weird...I accidentally agree with a Bush administration policy. Now, let's see if they apply the law equally to other companies raping the ill.

[Heidi]

4. I suspect

that a good deal of the price-gouging supports extraordinarily high CEO salaries.

[Lance_Boyle]

7. It does strike me as distasteful

for a co-op to be funding Porsches and $10K weekly salaries. These are supposed to be the good guys, doing good things for the right reasons. I am skeptical of the "good guys" rolling in riches. Wouldn't that (excessive) salary be better spent on a legal defense fund for the co-op? Sure looks like they need it now...

[Heidi]

8. I'd be less tolerant of the salaries if the co-op's members felt they were being gouged,

or if _the members_ (rather than the DEA) were the ones flipping out about it.

The co-op wouldn't _need_ a legal defense fund if not for the ineffective and unethical war on drugs which, in fact, is racist to the core.

[mainegreen]

9. Based on the risk he ran running a co-op that the FEDs view as a felony?

A person who runs one of those in the current climate deserves compensation IMHO.

[Heidi]

10. Agree. I would say that the pot clinic faces a much higher risk under the Bush (mis)Administration

than Big Pharma faces, yet the compensation for a liberal do-gooder whose "product" has never been linked to a user overdose or death is _much_ lower than that of a CEO who (too often) cannot make the same claim about his/her product(s).