An Unworkable Drug Policy
Yesterday, the Harris County District Attorney's Office made a radical change to their Operations Manual addressing how prosecutors will deal with Controlled Substances cases. The change, which takes effect immediately, prohibits prosecutors from making a recommendation (or agreeing to go to a judge without a recommendation) on any controlled substance case, unless there is a lab report confirming that controlled substance. The only possible exception to this rule would be if a prosecutor were to recommend that "a defendant housed in jail receive a term of community supervision with no additional jail confinement as a condition of the community supervision." The idea behind this change in policy was doubtlessly a noble one. Too many defendants were entering into plea bargain agreements on drug cases only to later find out that the drugs in question were not controlled substances after all. In situations where a lab report revealed a substance not to be a controlled