Colorado’s efforts to ensure our legal cannabis industry remains above suspicion of black market shenanigans have taken a major hit. In response, our state’s leaders need to act quickly and soundly to make sure our seed-to-sale regulatory system is reliable and beyond reproach.

Without that certainty, Colorado’s cannabis experiment could find itself in peril, jeopardizing the work of the many law-abiding ganjapreneurs out there who follow the rules.

The recent indictment of a former Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division officer ought to come as an enormous wake-up call.

As reported this week by The Cannabist’s Alicia Wallace, a grand jury has concluded that the enforcement officer, Renee Rayton, joined a company masquerading as a legal cannabis operator that lured her to work as a “compliance consultant” for $8,000 a month. We add the air quotes because the work Rayton was being asked to do hardly had to do with compliance, and it strains credulity to believe that someone in Rayton’s position was fooled.

Read more at The Denver Post.