GROWING IN POPULARITY

TORONTO (Reuters) - Marijuana cultivation is turning a legal profit for two
Canadian developers of a board game about the illegal practice.

The pair from Victoria, British Columbia, have created "The Cultivation
Game,"which pokes fun at the multimillion-dollar marijuana industry in the
west coast Canadian province.

"It represents a large part of the British Columbia economy," said
Harreson Waymen, 45, a health care worker who designed the game.

Wayman's partner, John Taylor, a retired carpenter, devised the idea after
hearing about numerous problems with cultivating of the crop. It took the
pair a year and about C$50,000 ($35,000) to get the product to market.

Players start off with C$9,000 ($6,300) and six plant tokens, which they
move around a board shaped like Vancouver Island off the British Columbia
mainland. The object is to cultivate and sell the most marijuana.

Police helicopters and nosy neighbors are some of the pitfalls players
must avoid.

Waymen and Taylor have been accused of promoting marijuana, a claim they deny.

"It shows more of the real life than the glorified, idealistic side of
it," Waymen said. "Growers have been held up at gun point. Biker gangs come
and have their way."

Almost 1,000 games have sold since it went on sale last November,
prompting a second run of 2,500. Orders have come from across North America
and the pair are negotiating distribution rights in Australia.

Relatively warm temperatures make Vancouver Island highly suitable for
marijuana cultivation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said.

"It may be a billion dollar operation in B.C. alone. It's very, very
prolific out here," said RCMP Sgt. Pat Convey. "In one month, we took down
41 operations and arrested 71 people."