(MONEY Magazine) – I got shot yesterday. The Obregon cartel killed my loved ones. And I got stuck with 50 units of heroin I couldn't sell.

Am I a drug dealer?

No. I was playing a new version of Dope Wars, the strategy game that, since its 1999 debut, has been downloaded by some 2 million gamers (from www.download.com). The updated version, called Traffic Wars, was released in late January to coincide with the release of Steven Soderbergh's film Traffic, on which it's loosely based (and which will contend for the Best Picture Oscar on March 25).

Traffic Wars involves exploiting temporary supply-and-demand discrepancies in the drug world in order to parlay $7,500 into $3 million in a matter of 15 "days" and thus pay back the Obregon drug cartel before it finds your family. This dystopian twist on classical economics has won the games a cult following among Wall Streeters, who use the Palm-based version to occupy themselves on their morning commutes. Some Merrill Lynch analysts report playing the game to avert boredom during training sessions. And the game's popularity is still growing, with some 90,000 people downloading one of the versions each week. (Traffic Wars is available, only for PCs, at cartelamerica .tripod.com.) Just beware: As I can personally attest, the game is addictive.

--STEPHANIE D. SMITH