He lies to Cloud about finding nothing in the North and has lied to Kadaj that Cloud had JENOVA's head.
That's not a small thing that doesn't matter. It endangers Cloud and everyone he cares about. And then the call to Cloud is 'hey, I've got work for you' instead of any warning about the above. There is no valid reason to do this.
However, they are giving it away for free, and given that recon is their specialty, the Turks, second only to Rufus in authority, would definitely catch on if significant amounts were being skimmed off the supply chain and sold on the streets. Based on private conversations, I think it's clear that the top echelon of Shinra does not want to cause any more public health issues even though they still desire dominance. It was Elena's idea, for the sake of her new friends, to do this, so I think she especially would be angry.
They say they're giving it away for free, but do they ever get around to it? (Maybe they do, I dunno)
There's no way to make this not abusive. Let's say the WRO carefully controls who gets doses, and the supply chain is watertight (very unlikely)
. Patients will want bigger doses, leading to robberies and violence, and people that will do favours to get bigger doses. Even if they're completely honest about their intentions, you have a public health emergency anyway. And if anyone at all is corrupt along that chain, it just gets worse and worse. If they don't control who gets what, then we have overdoses (which are possible, because Elena warns against it.) and everything that entails.
There needs to be consequences for stealing... but the fact that they don't investigate enough before dealing out the punishment beatings is very concerning. It doesn't fill me with confidence as to their intentions. They could've reported it to the WRO if they wanted to, but skipped straight to torture.
And then there's this: (Case of Shinra, page 9)
Reno, with the help of some volunteers, began to construct the monument. People were happy to help thinking it was some kind of symbol being built at the centre of the plaza. Amongst them, there were also those who protested, knowing Shinra’s true intentions but such problems were resolved using as Reno liked to call it, “the Turks’ way of doing things”.
This is just a monument, with the sinister purpose of having Shinra lay claim to Edge. People that figure that out are ominously silenced by the Turks.
The Turks silence people that speak out against Shinra. That's not a good sign. They don't have to, the monument is not important at all, it's just Rufus saying 'this place belongs to me'. It's not a necessary evil, it's just that they don't want people speaking out against them. I feel like someone genuinely trying to redeem themselves would not care what people thought of him as long as the world was recovering, but Rufus wants credit, he wants the people of Edge to know he owns it.
I think Rufus is written deliberately ambiguously, where you're not supposed to know his true intentions. He does all these things that straddle the line and you're not really sure where he stands, whether the 'angling for power' motivation or the 'redeem myself' motivation is on top, and you're not supposed to. Yes, he studies the effects of geostigma...but he has geostigma. Is this to benefit the world, or to cure himself? Either, or both, is perfectly plausible.
But anyway, all this is off topic. It appears I was wrong about them selling fake medicine, but what they are doing is almost equally scary.
