By Shira Schoenberg / Monitor staff

Porcupine candidate

Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate, makes no bones about it: “I have smoked pot.”

Johnson has also drunk alcohol. In his experience, he said in an interview, marijuana is the safer of the two.

Johnson was in New Hampshire this weekend promoting his Our America initiative and speaking at the Porcupine Freedom Festival in Lancaster. The goal of the initiative is to

“enlighten the population about civil liberties, free enterprise, limited government and traditional American values,” according to its mission statement.

Regulating marijuana is one area where Johnson believes the federal government should butt out. “Ninety percent of drug problems are related to prohibition, not use,” he said. If the country taxes and controls marijuana, Johnson said he believes drug use will decline, particularly among children, and so will drug-related violence. “They tried Prohibition, and it made a lot of individuals criminals who continued to drink,” Johnson said.

In general, Johnson said, the federal government must do a cost-benefit analysis of any spending – and then slash spending.

For example, Johnson would re-examine whether the U.S. needs a military presence in Japan, South Korea or Europe. He never supported the Iraq war and wants to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible.

“I don’t know if we benefit any country in the world if we’re bankrupt,” he said.

The Department of Education, he said, would be “at the top of the list for being abolished,” since federal aid can actually cost states money because of the strings attached.

To make entitlement programs sustainable, Johnson said he would raise the retirement age for Social Security and institute means testing so only people below a certain income level would get help. He would also institute means testing for Medicare, and would cap the amount of money given to states for Medicaid.

Johnson dislikes Arizona’s strict immigration law, because he believes the government should take less of a role in securing the borders. Rather, immigrants should be able to get work visas from employers – then pay taxes. “Employers should determine the need for workers,” Johnson said. “If there are not jobs, they won’t hang around.”

This is Johnson’s third trip to New Hampshire, because he believes that the first-in-the-nation primary state “has the ability to change the rest of the country.”