We recently posted about two illegal pot grow busts on federal land on Colorado's Western Slope.

Ten foreign nationals were arrested in the incidents — nine from Mexico, one from Honduras.

Last year, as we pointed out, Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area director Tom Gorman warned that Mexican cartels might try to move in on the Colorado marijuana industry.

Were these incidents evidence that Gorman was right? Readers were split on this question, but plenty of interesting subject matter flowed from the subsequent debate — including this writer's theory about a tie between the growth of the domestic cannabis business and the rise of illegal heroin sales.

Here's what he had to say.

Dan Brown writes: