Former Republican governor: "Regulating marijuana works!"

UPDATE: Gov. Johnson's endorsement of Amendment 64 was covered by the Denver Post, the Huffington Post, Westword, and the Colorado Independent.

Former New Mexico Governor and current Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson held a news conference today inside a Denver medical marijuana center, where he highlighted the success of regulating marijuana in Colorado and discussed the need for broader marijuana regulation. During his talk he endorsed the initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol, Amendment 64.

The Huffington Post reports:

It should come as no surprise that Johnson would support the ballot measure as he has been a vocal supporter of marijuana legalization and even brought the issue up during his campaign announcement in 2011 saying that he favors marijuana legalization as a way to eliminate much of the violence along the Mexico border.

On Johnson's own campaign website, he spells out his support for the end to marijuana prohibition clearly:

The parallels between drug policy today and Prohibition in the 1920’s are obvious, as are the lessons our nation learned. Prohibition was repealed because it made matters worse. Today, no one is trying to sell our kids bathtub gin in the schoolyard and micro-breweries aren’t protecting their turf with machine guns. It’s time to apply that thinking to marijuana. By making it a legal, regulated product, availability can be restricted, under-age use curtailed, enforcement/court/incarceration costs reduced, and the profit removed from a massive underground and criminal economy.

Gov. Johnson was joined at the news conference by several members of Colorado's medical marijuana industry, as well as supporters of Amendment 64.

Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado, had this to say to The Huffington Post about Johnson's visit:

We are pleased to have Gov. Johnson in town to witness firsthand how Colorado has successfully begun to regulate marijuana. The evidence is clear: regulating marijuana works. Colorado has seen a decrease in teen marijuana use since the state began the process of regulating medical marijuana, and we are confident that regulating marijuana like alcohol will further reduce access to marijuana by teens. Those who continue to ignore the evidence that marijuana regulation is working are doing a disservice to our citizens and communities. We are glad to see Gov. Johnson is taking this issue seriously and voicing his support for regulating marijuana like alcohol in Colorado.