You should probably think twice before ingesting those blue and yellow or purple (illicit) pills you scored on the Houston streets recently. While the dude slangin’ on the corner may have told you those colorful tabs were ecstasy, it may actually be meth in disguise.
Deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office shut down a couple of major drug labs in northwest Harris County Monday, where investigators say pill manufacturers were whipping up methamphetamine pills but disguising them to look like ecstasy. Not awesome at all.
More at the Houston Press.

“Most police chiefs understand that when it comes to marijuana use, we cannot criminalize such a large population of society that engage in casual marijuana use,” Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland said last Friday in a radio interview. “We can’t, you just can’t continue to do that, we understand that. …And this is why the federal government really needs to take the lead. Now health-wise, I don’t know what the long-term effects is for marijuana use, just like long-term effects of using an aspirin. I just don’t know. But I do know that it makes it difficult for law enforcement to enforce the law when you have a state law that may allow it, federal government does not. And, and on the other hand, too, sometimes young people make a mistake, and they’ve got to be given a second chance. And, so, I think this is something that, the country has moved, and sometimes you know, government has to move too. You know, in answer to the will of the people.”
In a 30-minute in-depth interview McClelland acknowledged that the war on drugs has disproportionately hurt “young minority men,” and that law enforcement attitudes on marijuana use are beginning to shift. More at the Houston Press.

It’s not decriminalization, but starting October 6 and ending in mid-April if you’re caught with up to two ounces of herb in Houston (or all of Harris County), you’re a non-violent offender and it’s your first time being busted, you won’t face any criminal charges so long as you complete eight hours of community service or an eight-hour drug course.
Oh, but you’ll still have to go through the humiliation of being arrested.