Pubdate: Mon, 26 Apr 2004
Source: Forbes Magazine (US)
Copyright: 2004 Forbes Inc.
Contact:  http://www.forbes.com/forbes/current/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/769
Author: Quentin Hardy
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

JOINT VENTURE

Warren Eugene says he has made millions through an Internet gambling
site he founded in 1995. His next play is to be a marijuana
kingpin--through a publicly traded company.

Eugene recently did a reverse takeover of a tiny U.S. public
company, renamed it Amigula, and now proposes to supply marijuana to
sick people in Canada. Canadian law allows sick people to legally
smoke the drug, but it prohibits companies from selling it. Not that
that detail seems to bother Eugene.

"There are many investors out there who will take a gamble,
figure I'll pull a monkey out of my hat again," says Eugene, 43, a
Canadian native with a Bahamian passport.

Amigula's headquarters are a hotel suite in Toronto. The
company has zero revenues and no government licenses to supply
marijuana, despite claims on Yahoo and Bloomberg Web sites to the
contrary. Eugene figures he will sign up 60,000 medical patients,
change Canadian law, learn to grow top-grade pot, sell to many
countries and corner a market now occupied by one agricultural company
and scores of furtive growers.

Even weed-legalization fans think he is smoking something
(the entrepreneur says he never touches the stuff) and have reported
the company to the securities cops. Antidrug congressmen have asked
the Food & Drug Administration to check it out. The SEC won't comment
on any investigation. Wonder how long this high will last.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin