Pubdate: Sun, 19 Dec 2004
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2004 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Jonathan Fowlie, CanWest News Service

GROW-OP GAME A DOPEY GIFT

Two reformed criminals have teamed up to create a Monopoly-style board
game where players fight the authorities, and each other, in an
attempt to build a thriving business in marijuana-growing operations.

The idea, Vancouver-based game creators say, is the brainchild of a
22-year-old who was busted after a brief career as a real-life
marijuana grower.

Company officials will only identify the 22-year-old as "The Rabbit"
because of his request for anonymity, but say he came up with the idea
while in jail, and that he worked to make it a reality once he emerged.

The game is played on a board that is split into four neighbourhoods;
Vancouver's west side, the North Shore, the east side and the suburbs.
Players must rent houses, garages or other places where they can grow
crops.

Then they buy "clones" to work the crops and equipment to maintain
them, while evading the "grow busters."

Among the people helping to bring the game to market is Kevan Garner,
a former Vancouver stock promoter who pleaded guilty in a Florida
court to two counts of laundering $1 million. He was sentenced to 87
months in prison.

Garner said he became involved in the Grow Op Game when an
acquaintance, Ivan Solomon, approached him with the idea. From his
Vancouver office Friday, Garner said that in May his sentence was
reduced to the time he had already served, and that he was released
and deported after having been in prison for about 15 months.

Garner said he has joined with the RCMP to do two speaking engagements
about his case and that he hopes to do others in the coming year.

"For me, it's kind of a cleansing experience to tell my story," Garner
said.

Solomon said the game is not intended to glorify or trivialize growing
operations, adding that players usually end up getting busted.

"Most of them screw up," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Derek