Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Orange County Register Contact: P.O. Box 11626, Santa Ana, CA 92711 Fax: (714) 565-3657 Website: http://www.ocregister.com/ Author: Chris Williams, The Associated Press POOR COUNTIES REFUSING TO HANDLE U.S. POT CASES AUSTIN, Texas - Cash-strapped district attorneys along the Texas-Mexico border will stop prosecuting federal marijuana cases beginning July 1, a spokesman for the group said Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Justice refers cases in which smugglers are caught at border checkpoints with 250 pounds or less of marijuana to state courts. Local officials say they are overwhelmed. "This partnership has gone one way for too long," said Jaime Esparza, district attorney for El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties and head of Southwest Border Prosecutors. Esparza said his group, which includes district attorneys from Brownsville to San Diego, has been negotiating for three years for either money or a policy change. If there is no response by July 1, "we will assume that the federal government will then accept the responsibility and prosecute these cases to the full extent of the law as we do," he said. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Houston said Zapata and Webb counties have refused marijuana prosecutions for more than a year. Esparza said a two-year-old study found that counties bordering Mexico from Texas to California spent between $48.5million and $148.6 million prosecuting federal drug crimes each year. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake