California Governor Wants National Guard To Help Struggling Pot Industry Instead Of Protecting Borders

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is hoping to pull National Guard troops away from the U.S.-Mexico border to help protect his state’s struggling marijuana industry.

Faced with competition from a robust black market, the legal cannabis industry in California has not experienced the growth that supporters had expected. Newsom — who enjoyed hundreds of thousands in campaign donations from the marijuana lobby — wants to aid the industry by redeploying at least 150 California National Guard troops from the U.S.-Mexico border and instead use them to combat illegal grows in Northern California.

“There are legitimate concerns in Northern California, particularly as it relates to illegal cannabis grows. They are getting worse, not better,” Newsom stated last week, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I want to see more enforcement.”

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