There’s a new career that seems perfectly suited to military veterans: protecting marijuana farms. As more and more states vote to legalize both medical and recreational marijuana use, the marijuana business continues to grow. But since this industry is still illegal in the eyes of the federal government, many marijuana businesses are often forced to be an all-cash business.
This abundance of cash and the value of the product they grow make the cannabis industry a target for criminals.
But Iron Protection Group, a security company that specialized in protecting marijuana farms, is reaching out a helping hand to the industry and providing much needed jobs to military veterans.
Curtis Simmons, a 34-year-old veteran who works for the Iron Protection Group, says that when got out of the military he was on nine different prescriptions to treat various conditions. But a new line of work, one that involved working with a plant with significant medical benefits, changed his life.
“You know, you leave war, but war never really leaves you,” Simmons says in a video promoting this relatively new line of work. “Everybody has their demons. I’ve got PTSD, insomnia, depression.”
Simmons says the while people typically shun upon the cannabis industry due to its legal status with the federal government, marijuana has helped him and countless other veterans control their physical and mental health issues.
People say, “’Oh, they’re just a bunch of combat veterans that just smoke weed,’ but it’s more than that,” Simmons said. Legal marijuana is a $1 billion industry in Colorado. Washington state has also completely legalized marijuana use. California voters have a proposition of the November ballot to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
Iron Protection Group hires vets to protect marijuana shops and farms all over the country.
Glenn Weatherly, a former Army Special Forces, said his four deployments to Iraq left him with severe mental health issues. He considered suicide multiple times coming as closing as placing the barrel of a loaded gun to his temple.
“In Colorado there’s been several instances of burglaries, robberies, things like that,” says Weatherly. “We apply these fundamentals (from our time in the military) out here on the range…. Seconds matter in a gun fight.”
The company’s founders, including Weatherly, Cory Aguillard, Matt Hanson and Hunter Garth, served together in the Marines. For more information on Iron Protection Group, visit the website.
Sources:
http://ironprotectiongroupsecurity.com/about-ipg/
https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/806802519461257/
