News (Media Awareness Project) - Canada: Wire: Gambling Pioneer Goes To Pot |
Title: | Canada: Wire: Gambling Pioneer Goes To Pot |
Published On: | 2003-12-04 |
Source: | Reuters (Wire) |
Fetched On: | 2008-01-19 04:19:16 |
GAMBLING PIONEER GOES TO POT
Internet Casino Founder Sees Profit Potential In Grass Roots Movement
For Legal Cannabis In Canada.
TORONTO - Warren Eugene, a pioneer of Internet gambling,
sees a lucrative new online frontier in a Canadian law that allows
people with certain illnesses to grow and smoke their own marijuana.
Eugene, 43, says his firm, Amigula/Medical Cannabis Inc., plans to
grow and sell the drug to people authorized to use it for medical
purposes, and perhaps to some people not medically authorized. He
wants Amigula/Medical to become an international, publicly listed concern.
"This flower power has a new opportunity for resurgence. This is what
really interested me," Eugene said in Toronto.
A Canadian who spends most of his time in Nassau, Bahamas, and
definitely no hippie, Eugene says he's never smoked pot and is not
interested in the grass-roots movement to legalize the drug. But he
sees a money-making opportunity.
He's funding his venture with $5 million of his own money and wants to
raise another $7 million from investors.
Initially it will target medical users, but he says the market could
grow if Canada confirms legislation, currently under review, that
would decriminalize the possession of up to 15 grams of cannabis, just
over half an ounce.
"This plant [cannabis] has such a fragrance that's ready to bloom and
bleed into the marketplace, so to speak, and produce an elaborate and
remarkable return for investors," said Eugene, who founded the first
Internet casino at www.casino.org. Among Eugene's potential customers
is Marisa Zaza, 27, who has been licensed by the Canadian government
to receive medical marijuana to relieve pain and swelling caused by an
inoperable lump in her breast.
"I wasn't able to keep any food down. So I would end up smoking a
bowl, or smoking a joint to try to calm the nausea that the
painkillers would cause," Zaza said.
Canada says Zaza and 400,000 others can use medical marijuana; Eugene
wants to tap 40,000 to start. If each buys C$1,000 ($765) worth of
marijuana a year, annual sales could reach C$40 million, he said,
adding that he will sell the cannabis at C$3 a gram, less than half
the street price.
He plans to grow the marijuana in Vancouver and Ontario and sell it to
people approved by the government through the Web site
www.amigula.com. Buyers will receive their cannabis via courier. He
intends to approach doctors and also sell in other countries where use
of cannabis is legal for medical purposes.
He wants to list his company on stock markets in Denmark, London,
Amsterdam, Canada, Australia and Paris.
Eugene already has a stock market vehicle. Shares of Applied Computer
Technology Inc. are trading on Nasdaq's over-the-counter market after
a reverse takeover in which Warren sold 51 percent of his private
Canadian firm, Medical Cannabis Inc., in exchange for controlling
interest in the Colorado-based technology company.
Medical Cannabis Inc. was formed in September and owns a patent for a
marijuana patch -- similar to the nicotine patches that smokers use to
help them quit.
Applied Computer Technology will be renamed Amigula and should soon
start trading under a new ticker symbol, he said.
"If marijuana works, I am going to go with opium next."
Internet Casino Founder Sees Profit Potential In Grass Roots Movement
For Legal Cannabis In Canada.
TORONTO - Warren Eugene, a pioneer of Internet gambling,
sees a lucrative new online frontier in a Canadian law that allows
people with certain illnesses to grow and smoke their own marijuana.
Eugene, 43, says his firm, Amigula/Medical Cannabis Inc., plans to
grow and sell the drug to people authorized to use it for medical
purposes, and perhaps to some people not medically authorized. He
wants Amigula/Medical to become an international, publicly listed concern.
"This flower power has a new opportunity for resurgence. This is what
really interested me," Eugene said in Toronto.
A Canadian who spends most of his time in Nassau, Bahamas, and
definitely no hippie, Eugene says he's never smoked pot and is not
interested in the grass-roots movement to legalize the drug. But he
sees a money-making opportunity.
He's funding his venture with $5 million of his own money and wants to
raise another $7 million from investors.
Initially it will target medical users, but he says the market could
grow if Canada confirms legislation, currently under review, that
would decriminalize the possession of up to 15 grams of cannabis, just
over half an ounce.
"This plant [cannabis] has such a fragrance that's ready to bloom and
bleed into the marketplace, so to speak, and produce an elaborate and
remarkable return for investors," said Eugene, who founded the first
Internet casino at www.casino.org. Among Eugene's potential customers
is Marisa Zaza, 27, who has been licensed by the Canadian government
to receive medical marijuana to relieve pain and swelling caused by an
inoperable lump in her breast.
"I wasn't able to keep any food down. So I would end up smoking a
bowl, or smoking a joint to try to calm the nausea that the
painkillers would cause," Zaza said.
Canada says Zaza and 400,000 others can use medical marijuana; Eugene
wants to tap 40,000 to start. If each buys C$1,000 ($765) worth of
marijuana a year, annual sales could reach C$40 million, he said,
adding that he will sell the cannabis at C$3 a gram, less than half
the street price.
He plans to grow the marijuana in Vancouver and Ontario and sell it to
people approved by the government through the Web site
www.amigula.com. Buyers will receive their cannabis via courier. He
intends to approach doctors and also sell in other countries where use
of cannabis is legal for medical purposes.
He wants to list his company on stock markets in Denmark, London,
Amsterdam, Canada, Australia and Paris.
Eugene already has a stock market vehicle. Shares of Applied Computer
Technology Inc. are trading on Nasdaq's over-the-counter market after
a reverse takeover in which Warren sold 51 percent of his private
Canadian firm, Medical Cannabis Inc., in exchange for controlling
interest in the Colorado-based technology company.
Medical Cannabis Inc. was formed in September and owns a patent for a
marijuana patch -- similar to the nicotine patches that smokers use to
help them quit.
Applied Computer Technology will be renamed Amigula and should soon
start trading under a new ticker symbol, he said.
"If marijuana works, I am going to go with opium next."
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