As pot emerges from black market, regulators face scrutiny

Hire new regulators to keep watch on the business, all without any experience regulating a brand-new industry.

A pair of cases several years into the legal-weed experiment might not seem like much, but they give a black eye to all marijuana regulators and fuel old fears about the criminal element’s influence.

In a case that has caught the U.S. Justice Department’s attention, former Colorado marijuana enforcement officer Renee Rayton is accused of helping pot growers raise plants for illegal out-of-state sales.

A June 7 indictment says Rayton told the pot growers she could help them “get legal” through her contacts at the Colorado agency that oversees the marijuana industry.

The indictment says Rayton had “vast knowledge” of marijuana regulations and “must have been aware” that other defendants in the case were growing pot illegally.

[...] since recreational pot remains off-limits in most states and in the U.S. government’s eyes, a massive black market remains.