Following up on Monday’s plan to pull National Guard troops from the California-Mexico border, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced today as part of his State of the State address that he plans to send some of those troops north to tackle cannabis grows.
“We’re not backing down,” Newsom said this morning. “Just yesterday, I gave the National Guard a new mission — on that will refocus on the real threats facing our state.”
He outlined three areas he wants the troops to address, including wildfire preparedness and “stopping criminals smuggling drugs and guns through our existing border checkpoints.”
“Another third will boost the National Guard’s statewide Counterdrug Task Force by redeploying up north to go after illegal cannabis farms, many of which are run by cartels, are devastating our pristine forests, and are increasingly becoming fire hazards themselves,” Newsom said.
North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) lauded the move to use the National Guard troops in other ways.
“I also fully support his move to withdraw National Guard Troops from the border and repurpose these hard-working men and women to make California more fire safe and to help eradicate the illegal drug cartel activity that has taken hold in California’s cannabis industry,” McGuire said in a news release.
North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood noted, “All of this work is extremely important to our district.”
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal welcomed the assistance locally in fighting cartel-run grows.
“We welcome the governor’s proposal to send more public safety resources to the rural areas of (California) to combat the few (drug-trafficking organizations) that still exist,” Honsal said in an email to the Times-Standard.
Honsal added the sheriff’s office had a long-standing working relationship with the state and the National Guard.
“This is a carryover of the ‘CAMP’ program,” Honsal said. “We have worked alongside our state and federal partners on combatting cartels and drug trafficking organizations growing marijuana on public lands. Due to this partnership, we have seen a significant decrease in these (drug trafficking organizations) growing operations in our county. Humboldt County only identified a handful of trespass grows last year. We believe this is due to our enforcement efforts and the significant increase in marijuana supply and the rock bottom price (marijuana) is getting on the black market.”
He added that now was a good time to pivot to addressing the increasing methamphetamine and heroin problem in Humboldt County.
“Right now California is being flooded with meth and heroin from Mexico,” Honsal said. “County law enforcement has seen a steady increase in the amount of hard drugs that are in the streets of Humboldt County. The top priority for our (Humboldt) County Drug Task Force is to stop the drug trafficking of these killer drugs into our county. … We would welcome more assistance from the state and the Department of Justice to help combat the growing meth and heroin problem in our rural county.”
Ruth Schneider can be reached at 707-441-0520.
