"B.C. Bud" game highlights the perils of marijuna growing

December 20, 2004

The Associated Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. - The hot new Christmas gift in Canada this year is a board game that lets players run their own "B.C. Bud" marijuana farm.  Creators of "The Grow-Op Game" say the $39.95 "educational board game" highlights the perils of the marijuana business and cautions would-be growers. "You get ratted on by neighbors, hydro cuts you off, you get floods, there are tons of stuff that is negative about it," said Vancouver-based creator Ivan Solomon Saturday. Solomon said the Monopoly-style game is the brainchild of a young, 20-something reformed pot grower, known only as the "Rabbit," to conceal his identity. Solomon said Rabbit came up with the idea for the game while serving time in jail. Rabbit and Solomon brought the game to market about four weeks ago. Players roll the dice, move around the board, renting properties, buying lights and equipment, planting and harvesting crops. Moving in an opposite direction on the cylinder shaped board is the "GrowBuster." He lands on the unsuspecting player's property, rips out the plants and sends the player directly to jail. "Out of six players, one might get lucky," Soloman said. Cpl. Scott Rintoul, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Drug Awareness Squad, expressed concern that the game does not illustrate the impact the drug trade can having on the victims of organized crime. "It's not a game," he said.