THE WINNER IS ... THE ONE WITH THE BIGGEST GROW-OP

VANCOUVER - 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.

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.

From his Vancouver office Friday, Garner said he became involved in
the Grow Op Game, which is available on the Internet, when an
acquaintance, Ivan Solomon, approached him with the idea.

Solomon, who has put together successful board games in the past, had
been approached by the so-called "Rabbit" with the idea, and thought
it was "pretty hot," especially since the 22-year-old wanted to use it
to go clean.

"This is a guy who has been on the wrong side," Solomon said in an
interview Friday, "and now has an opportunity to take this
entrepreneurial spirit."

Solomon added the game is not intended to glorify or trivialize
growing operations, but rather to demonstrate how difficult they are
to establish, and how easy it is to run into problems.

"Most of them screw up," he said, pointing out that in the game, most
of the players usually end up getting busted. "It really is meant to
let people know that the road to criminal activity is not that easy."

The game comes in a tube and is played on a laminated board that is
split into four Vancouver neighbourhoods.

Players must rent houses, garages or other places where they can grow
crops, all the while evading the "growbusters."

Like in Monopoly, players pick up "Karma Kards," which can prove a
boon -- like the card that tells you your buyer is giving you $10,000
and is leasing you a Hummer -- or a bust -- like the one that says you
owe $5,000 to pay for a hit man to deal with the neighbour who "rats
on you.