A strong supporter of taxing and regulating marijuana, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination for 2012.

Johnson recently wrote: "Let's end the unworkable marijuana prohibition and put our money where our mouth is. Let's solve the problems like border crime. We can do it with pot legalization."

In December, Johnson admitted that he had smoked marijuana for medicinal purposes from 2005 to 2008 after he broke his back, knees and several ribs in a paragliding accident in Hawaii.

During his two terms as governor from 1995 to 2002, Johnson (born Jan. 1, 1953 in Minot, North Dakota) embraced Libertarian ideals, which includes ending the prohibition of marijuana and other drugs. "Control it, regulate it, tax it," Johnson regularly says about marijuana. Over the last two years, he attended and spoke at many pro-marijuana events, including the NORML Conference, MPP Anniversary Gala, Seattle Hempfest, Portland Hempstalk, High Times' Medical Cannabis Cup and Cypress Hill's SmokeOut as part of his Our America Initiative tour.

He's also appeared numerous times on The Colbert Report.

Johnson accepts his new status as a Top CelebStoner kindly: "My pledge is I'm going to continue to speak out on this issue. When it comes to issues that we face in this country, marijuana would improve our quality of life overnight, when police would actually go out tomorrow and enforce real crime as opposed to non-violent victimless crime. So I'll take this as an honor. I'll be that spokesperson for legalizing marijuana and I'll continue to speak out on this."

The Teapot Party recently endorsed Johnson's presidential run.

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