HoustonChronicle.com - War on drugs nets small-time offenders

Texas' war on drugs punishes few major importers and dealers but imprisons thousands caught with less than a sugar packet full of cocaine or other illegal drugs.

The battle rages most fiercely in Harris County.

Of the 58,000 drug convictions won by local prosecutors over the past five years, 77 percent involved less than a gram of a drug, according to district court data analyzed by the Houston Chronicle. Harris County sent 35,000 of these small-time offenders to jail or prison.

Judge John Creuzot, who runs a widely praised drug court in Dallas County, was incredulous that convicts in Harris County get to choose between probation and jail time. Allowing drug offenders to opt for jail instead of requiring them to get treatment only fuels their addictions, he said.

"You might as well put a crack pipe in their mouth," Creuzot said.

Harris County judges and prosecutors are legendary for their strident law-and-order stance. The county is nicknamed "the capital of capital punishment" because it has produced more death sentences than most states.

Harris County has a drug enforcement problem.