Houston Mayor Points to DA as Cannabis Arrests Spike
Houston Mayor John Whitmire pointed to Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare as the reason cannabis arrests have spiked during his tenure, according to comments to reporters outlined by Houston Public Media.
A report last week found arrest rates for misdemeanor cannabis possession spiked nearly 1,200% under Whitmire, averaging 440 people arrested per year for low-level cannabis possession, compared to only about 35 misdemeanor cannabis arrests per year from 2021-2023.
Whitmire told reporters that “It’s a very complex issue” while accusing them of “playing loose” with the data.
“It’s largely the change in district attorney. Charges don’t come about without talking to the district attorney.” — Whitmire, to reporters, via Houston Public Media
According to an analysis of Harris County criminal court records by Houston Public Media, the Harris County District Attorney’s (DA) Office increased prosecutions of misdemeanor cannabis cases in 2024 – from an average of 151 in the preceding three years to more than 1,600 – before Teare took office. Kim Ogg ran the office until Teare took over in 2025, and prosecutions have remained elevated under Teare, with more than 1,200 last year and nearly 700 so far this year.
Ogg implemented a diversion program for misdemeanor cannabis possession in 2017, which offered an alternative to jail if alleged offenders agreed to complete 90 days of community supervision and a cognitive course, the report says. Ogg told Houston Public Media that the deal “was a negotiated compromise” with law enforcement leaders so police could be kept “on the street longer and stop ruining individual work and school opportunities through unnecessary convictions, especially when marijuana was legal in so many states.”
However, in August 2023, Ogg issued a memo stating her office would “now evaluate every drug possession case … for the direct filing of charges,” citing “the increasing public safety threat of fentanyl.” In 2024, the first full year after the memo, prosecutions surged by more than 550%, the report says. However, Ogg told Houston Public Media that the memo had “zero to do” with cannabis.
“It was all directed at controlled substances,” she told Houston Public Media, “namely fentanyl or white powdery substances that could have been fentanyl, but weren’t known to police until and if lab tests were done.”
A spokesperson for Teare told Houston Public Media that the memo “absolutely corresponded with the spike in marijuana prosecutions.”
“I want to strongly emphasize that DA Teare has long been on record as opposing the use of law enforcement resources to go after low-level non-violent drug charges,” a spokesperson for DA Teare said in a statement. “But he still has to operate within the clear confines of state law.”
Whitmire told reporters that “Personal use of marijuana is not a priority” for the city’s police department.
“The officers use discretion when they discover personal use of marijuana,” he said during his remarks, according to Houston Public Media. “We talk to the district attorney’s office, and they make the final decision whether anyone will be accepted in intake. I know you might not like that number, but those are the facts.”
Ogg contended that questions about the spike in cannabis arrests shouldn’t be directed at the mayor, rather to “the police department about what their internal policies are.”
A Houston Police Department spokesperson told Houston Public Media that the department does not have a general order directing officers whether or not to arrest someone for misdemeanor cannabis possession, while the Harris County Sheriff’s Office lists misdemeanor cannabis possession under its cite-and-release program, allowing alleged offenders to avoid jail.