Pubdate: Wed, 16 Feb 2005
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  http://www.fyicalgary.com/calsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Pablo Fernandez
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

GROW OP GAME A BUST AT TOY FAIR

Where there's toke, there's ire. The heat is on a onetime B.C. pot grower 
over a board game critics say promotes the illegal marijuana industry.

Grow Op, a game manufactured by Vancouver's Bored Games Corp., has been 
banned from the New York Toy Fair.

Only days before the Sunday launch of the fair, the Toy Industry 
Association said it banned Grow Op because it goes against the values the 
TIA is trying to portray and their mandate to support the positive 
development of children.

The game was created by a B.C. grower, known only as Rabbit, who realized 
the way to easy money in the $7-billion-a-year marijuana industry is often 
illusive and fraught with challenges.

Some of the nasty circumstances he faced and that the board game now puts 
players through include floods, fires, fungus, bugs, biker gangs, angry 
neighbours, loans from criminal organizations at unforgiving rates and the 
imminent police knock on the door.

Calgary Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart was "shocked" to hear such a game was 
being sold U.S. and Canada-wide.
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MAP posted-by: Beth