Governor Takes Pot Shots

Give him this much: Gary Johnson of New Mexico is not your average governor. Whether he's hang gliding off mountains or competing in a triathalon, Johnson has always gone his own way. Only this time even his staunchest supporters are shocked at the direction, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

Johnson came to Washington Monday to say the war on drugs has been lost and we have been preaching the wrong message to our kids.

"You're brought up hearing that drugs are gonna make you crazy. And you know what? You do marijuana for the first time and it's not so bad! It's kind of cool, actually," Johnson said.

And as an admitted cocaine and marijuana user in his own youth, drug use is also harmful, he believes. Nevertheless, the two-term Republican governor has become the highest-ranking public official yet to suggest the legalization of drugs.

"There is a real strong argument that you could reduce or hold level drug abuse under a legalized scenario. This prohibition model that we have -- which is arrest'em and lock'em up -- is clearly not working," he said.

That the governor of a border state -- where the drug war is fiercest -- would make such a claim has infuriated lawmen, who say drug abuse is on the decline. White House Drug Czar General Barry McAffrey went further, calling Johnson's ideas "nutty" and "bizarre."

"One of his own sheriffs told me he's done more damage in the past few months than has been done in the last several years by drug legalization forces. This is a preposterously irresponsible line of argument to put out in public," McCaffrey said.

Johnson can't seek re-election in New Mexico under the term limits law and his proposals don't seem to be going anywhere, but that hasn't stopped a Washington counterattack. McCaffrey now says he'll go to New Mexico and remind people there they led the nation in drug overdoses in 1995.