The idea is to get them talking to each other about what's going on rather than just clicking buttons.
However, the demand for other opiates (especially heroin) went up. For example, when tamper-resistant oxycodone tablets were introduced, the demand for oxycodone tablets went down. Street price can also be influenced by a "demand multiplier" that can be set for each individual drug. Street prices are always at least a little bit higher than pharmacy prices (no criminal is going to engage in "loss-leaders"!). However, if only one or two players have any alprazolam, the street price will likely be higher. If all the players are buying up alprazolam, there is going to be glut on the market and the street price goes down.
The street price fluctuates based on how many units are available for sale from all the players. If the player purchases the drugs without getting arrested, they can then sell them on the street. Think of it as the pharmacist being much more suspicious when someone comes in with a prescription for 300 oxycodone tablets than they would be if the person was only getting 10 tablets. While the cost of buying drugs from pharmacies stays constant, the risk of getting arrested increases with the number of units bought. Players initially borrow money from the loan shark so that they can purchase medicines from pharmacies using fake prescriptions. The administrator (faculty member) can tailor the drug list however they like. However, people have been known to crush and insufflate the tablets. Trazodone, while prescription-only, is not a controlled substance. Oxandrolone is an anabolic steroid (Schedule III) that is sometimes used illicitly by athletes. The six baseline medications are alprazolam, hydrocodone, oxycodone, amphetamine, oxandrolone and trazodone. Each teams' net profit (or loss) is displayed in real-time on the screen. The goal is to make more money than other players. Players take on the role of gangs that buy medicines from pharmacies and then re-sell them for non-therapeutic uses (on the street). Some of the slides I use during the class are here. Students can then try to see how these strategies might affect the illicit prescription drug trade. These changes might include increasing surveillance of Schedule II drugs, increasing the risk of arrest when selling on the street, efforts to decrease demand, etc. While students play the game I change the market environment to illustrate various strategies that governments have used to combat the problem. I use this game as a framing device during pharmacy school classes dealing with prescription drug abuse as a public health issue. Prescription Wars is a multiplayer variation on the old DrugWars DOS game where players buy and sell illicit drugs.
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