Is Bayer being Punished for Yaz Blood Clots Scandal?
What do Yaz blood clots, marijuana dealers, burglary and white collar crime have in common? In light of the mass global demonstrations that started with the Occupy Wall Street group, comparisons between corporate and individual punishments have been cropping up on blogs. The truth is that our system delivers far more formidable consequences to offenders of small-scale burglary than to executives who steal millions. One such example compared Roy Brown, a homeless man in Louisiana, to Paul Allen, a former mortgage CEO in Virginia. Brown, who burglarized a bank and stole a single $100 bill to buy food, later turned himself in to police and was sentenced to a 15-year prison term. In contrast, the mortgage CEO, Allen, was involved in a massive fraud scheme and stole $3 billion, was sentenced to about three years in prison. Race may be a complicating factor, as Roy Brown is African American and Paul Allen is of Caucasian. But one certain conclusion can be drawn: corporations are getting away with murder, and we are letting them.
Take another case in point: Contrast the consequences faced by small-time marijuana sellers and corporations that market risky drugs that cause illness and even death to countless individuals. Specifically, look at the consequences faced by the pharmaceutical company, Bayer, who sells Yaz, an oral contraceptive. Bayer has been issued multiple FDA Yaz Blood Clot Warning statements blaming the company for not making consumers aware of the potentially serious and life-threatening side effects of Yaz. The FDA letters state that the drug company was aware that Yaz increases the potassium levels in a patient’s blood stream, which can result in serious health problems including deep vein thrombosis, stroke and heart attack. In several televisions ads, Bayer was accused of downplaying the drug’s risks and exaggerating its benefits, as well as making false claims that the drug could treat serious acne or mitigate PMS symptoms. Hundreds of millions of women responded to Bayer’s charismatic advertisements, and Yaz became the most popular contraceptive pill in the world in 2006. For exposing millions, or perhaps billions, of women to these life-threatening health risks without warning them, Bayer has received letters of reprimand and was forced to create an advertising campaign that clarified their previously-false statements. The drug still enjoys FDA approval, and while the number of Yaz users has dropped, the drug is still profitable. The worst punishment for the company may be in the form of Yaz blood clot lawsuits, but the damages Bayer will pay out will be negligible in comparison to the huge profits Yaz has yielded over the past decade.
In contrast, a minimum jail term for selling a kg or more of marijuana is five years, and many offenders are sentenced to decades in prison for selling far less. Marijuana is an illegal substance in most states, but is generally acknowledged to be less harmful than alcohol, does not lead to addiction and does not cause any serious or life-threatening health problems. Yet a majority of small-time marijuana dealers are lower class and/or minority. Once again, small and insignificant crimes committed by regular people are punished far more extremely than serious missteps that impact millions.
