When MBA students at the University of British Columbia attended a recent lecture on business ethics, they shared the hard-won wisdom of an acknowledged expert.

He's Kevan Garner, who spent 15 months in jail for a million-dollar Florida money-laundering gambit.

After his release, however, the one-time B.C. stock promoter landed on his feet. He's now a partner in The Bored Games Corp., Vancouver-based vendors of a smokin' new board game.

Known as The Grow Op Game, it uses a Monopoly-style board to simulate the trials, terrors, risks and rewards of your friendly neighbourhood marijuana farmer. To this point, Garner's private company has harvested a bumper crop of revenues, after a modest initial outlay of about $20,000.

Wayne Chose, Business Edge
Kevan Garner's Grow Op board game shows players how to roll the dice when deciding whether to mess with marijuana or make an honest living.

Garner moved 2,000 units within 10 days of last December's launch and The Grow-Op Game is well into a second printing of 5,000 copies.

To maintain momentum, Garner and partner Ivan Solomon recently teamed with a St. Louis-based Internet marketing outfit, pledging to develop an international online affiliate program to crank up sales volumes. Meanwhile, they're planning a European launch next September and are currently meeting with electronic game developers (interested parties, feel free to get in touch ... the more the merrier) in hopes of bringing Grow Op to a PlayStation or XBox near you.

But no, despite his product and his past, Garner doesn't advocate larceny as a lifestyle choice.

"When I spoke to the MBA class, I said: 'You won't have to wait until (the cops) come through the door. The guilt and the fear you carry within you will drive you crazy long before they ever do,' " he says, and the quaver in his voice lends authority to the words.

"I had a huge breach in my ethics, but it's not like I was a professional money-launderer. It was a one-off deal," Garner adds, simultaneously hoping the Grow-Op Game turns out to be anything but.

Sales got a boost in February when the New York Toy Fair banned the game, bowing to the moral indignation of the Toy Industry Association south of the border.

"That was the best press we've had," Garner says wryly.

For those who share the association's pique, Garner has a simple message: Light up ... ooops, sorry, lighten up.

"Let's make a comparison," he suggests. "The biggest-selling video game of 2004 was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which sold 320,000 copies. How do you win? You steal a car and run over a hooker ... " By contrast, the marketing thrust of The Grow Op Game is: Don't do the deal. Get your kicks vicariously, by pretending.

"I've never personally had a grow-op, but when you play the game, you'll see the dangers. You definitely can get busted," he restates the obvious.

"The second thing is, playing this game gives you a great forum for sitting down with your kids to talk about drugs," Garner says, adding that he frequently plays with his 15-year-old daughter.

"Drugs are out there and teenagers are using them. This is a good way to start a discussion. If you try to lecture them, they turn off."

Whether or not you buy that particular sales pitch, retailers are stocking the game from coast to Canadian coast and from San Luis Obispo to Libertyville, Ill., in the U.S.

At last count, The Grow Op Game, which retails at $39.95, was available in dozens of shops across the country, including stores such as Roach-O-Rama in Toronto and Themptations in Sarnia. Next stop: Europe, where The Bored Games Corp. is putting the finishing touches to an agreement with a joint venture partner.

"We have three distributors who want to carry the game," says Garner. "The subject matter is a little more acceptable over there - we've already shipped a lot of games over there."

Whether or not you buy the hype, The Grow Op Game is said to be the brainchild of a shadowy grow-operative known only as The Rabbit.

A more important collaborator is half-owner Solomon, a successful marketing/design pro who helped develop two previous games, one of which, known as Punchlines, moved 1.5 million copies.

Win or lose, Garner pledges his days as a confidence man are done forever: "We all screw up one way or another," he says wearily.

"Mine was a large one and really well-publicized. But we never know how these things can change our lives."

Web Watch: www.growopgame.com

(Tom Keyser can be reached at keyser@businessedge.ca)