Code name for pot bust also smoker’s accessory

In the four years since they started selling an allin-one smoker’s accessory — lighter sleeve, tamper and poker — Grand Junction entrepreneurs Matt and Leslie Bodenchuk were hitting their stride.

This week, the married couple were securing prototypes for three new Toker Poker products and hashing out collaboration agreements with a few musical artists interested in hawking the smoking accessories at their shows.

Toker Poker’s unabashed growth streak showed no signs of slowing. Then came Wednesday. Shortly after noon, Colorado’s attorney general and state and federal law enforcement agencies announced they had snuffed out the largest illegal marijuana trafficking ring since recreational pot was legalized in the state, with a grand jury issuing dozens of indictments.

Because a good swath of the alleged 62-person crew were family or high school friends who played poker together, investigators dubbed the operation “Toker Poker,” officials told the media.

Matt Bodenchuk’s phone lit up. A buddy texted him that a huge drug bust was named Toker Poker.

Business partners queried if the Toker Poker business was involved or even the ringleader.

Bodenchuk paused the business deals and shifted into crisis containment.

“If you ever looked for Toker Poker online, we were all over the first page of Google,” he said, noting that after numerous media outlets covered Wednesday’s indictments, “we’re down at the bottom of the Google search. I’m not sure how that’s going to affect our sales, but I know it’s going to.”

He is cutting into money set aside for growth plans and allocating that instead for search-engine optimization improvement and corrective advertising campaigns.

Bodenchuk also placed a few calls to law enforcement and state officials trying to learn about how it came to be that a code name shares the name of a firm he established in 2010.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office reiterated that the code name came from the affiliation of the individuals.

Bodenchuk said he is hopeful this whole situation will blow over, with minimal harm to his business. If the sales and branding hits are deeper than anticipated, that would force him to evaluate his legal options.

“Depending on how much this really affects our brand,” he said, “if this is a long-term thing, then I would absolutely look to proceed legally.”