Forget Park Lane, I'll buy a bit of puff

There was a time when board games were wholesome family fun: mum, dad and children around the table, squabbling over whose turn it was and who owed what to whom.

But a new game on sale in Britain has a more sinister aim - make the most cash from dealing drugs without getting caught.

The game, Chaps from Amsterdam, is like the evil love child of Monopoly and TV's Baltimore crime drama The Wire. It has enraged anti-drug campaigners who say it both glamourises and trivialises the trade.

Players become dealers who vie to buy S.P.A.C.E (speed, puff, acid, coke and Ecstasy) in Amsterdam for the lowest price and sell it on for the greatest profit.

Instead of Monopoly's Chance cards, there are Police cards, whose forfeits include: "Your bent copper loses the evidence; pay protection £150,000 [$384,000]", and "Your courier is busted for Ecstasy; lose all your Es". Other cards detail the actions of informers and the courts.

The game is on sale online from its manufacturers and eBay for £40. It was devised by a company called Hard Impact Board Games, which is careful to protect its anonymity. Describing itself as "a collective of individuals from London aged 30-50", it claims to have no first-hand knowledge of the Dutch drug scene, although one of the inventors is understood to have spent time in prison.

- INDEPENDENT