"New Mexico should begin immediately to decrease its reliance on supply-reduction strategies for combating drug and alcohol abuse and focus instead on demand-reduction strategies such as prevention and treatment," the report by Johnson's 10-member Drug Policy Advisory Group concludes. Gov. Johnson convened the group in May to propose an overhaul of the state's drug policies.

The recommendations mark a radical departure from the anti-drug strategies currently in vogue across the country. The proposals, for which Johnson must still find legislative sponsors, call for the decriminalization for adults of "personal use" marijuana in amounts of 1 ounce or less; passage of medical-marijuana legislation; making drug treatment available upon request throughout the state; and the reduction of charges in all first and second drug-possession offenses to misdemeanors.

Under the proposals, individuals convicted of minor drug-possession offenses would be given probation and treatment rather than jail. And those still facing jail sentences would be given new opportunities for treatment and rehabilitation. The panel argues that mandatory minimum sentences for drug convictions should be eliminated, and it encourages the diversion of cases to drug courts, which tend to offer alternatives to imprisonment. It recommends that courts stop using drug offenses as a basis for longer sentencing under habitual-offender (e.g. "three strikes") laws and calls for prison-based methadone treatment. It would also make it more difficult for the government to order seizures of assets in drug cases.

The reforms would make it easier for patients to seek drug treatment through physicians. Doctors would be free to prescribe methadone; federal Medicaid contracts would be adjusted to pay for that and other treatments.

Johnson's Drug Policy Advisory Group is also asking the governor to implement new drug-education programs built on a "harm-reduction approach" that would teach students the relative dangers of different drugs rather than the traditional "just say no" strategy of zero-tolerance programs used by most American schools and educators.

Not surprisingly, foes of Johnson's liberal stance on drug legalization were quick to criticize the proposals. "The minute you weaken the position of keeping drugs out of the hands of children, you have problems," says Republican state Rep. Ted Hobbs of Albuquerque. "It's a general reaction, an emotional reaction." Of the education proposals, Hobbs says, "I like 'Just say no!' I totally disagree with anything that weakens the position that drug use is simply bad."