Suit Charging False Health Claims Settled

Owners of two Los Angeles-area drugstores agreed Thursday to pay $20,000 in civil penalties and legal costs to end a consumer protection suit that accused them of illegally selling tea made from Brazilian tree bark and other drugs as unauthorized cancer cures.

Jules and Neal Rocklin, president and vice president respectively of Rocklin Enterprises Inc., which owns the Ethical Drugs pharmacies at 254 N. Western Ave. and 1402 Santa Monica Mall, also agreed to avoid misleading customers about the curative value of drugs or selling any drugs not approved under the Health and Safety Code.

Basis of Lawsuit

The agreement, in which the Rocklins admitted no wrongdoing, ended a civil suit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court by Deputy Dist. Atty. James R. Hickey accusing the drugstores of unlawful business practices and false advertising.

Hickey said nearly $20,000 worth of the useless drugs had been sold by the stores.

The prosecutor said Ethical Drugs wrongly sold a drug product called Dr. Barmakian’s Brazilian Herbal Tea made from the bark of a pau d’arco tree as a curative for cancer, arthritis, rheumatism, stomach ulcers, varicose veins and leukemia.

Many Benefits Claimed

The suit alleged that the stores also sold a product called Solaray Formula SP-1 as a cure for infertility, impotence, venereal diseases, arthritis, rheumatism, tuberculosis, whooping cough, diabetes, high blood pressure, varicose veins, prostate problems, ulcers and cataracts.