The rodents are enjoying marijuana at the Houston Police Department that has been sitting in evidence for years.

"Drug-addicted rats" are eating narcotics seized and stored by Houston police, prompting a change in how long the department is required to store the evidence, officials said.

"We've got 400,000 lbs. of marijuana in storage, that the rats are the only ones enjoying it," said Houston Mayor John Whitmire.

To illustrate the problem, Houston police Chief J. Noe Diaz pointed to one piece of cocaine evidence from 1996 that was still in the lockup. The individual tied to the drugs pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and has since been released, he said.

Houston police were first made aware of rats dining in their evidence room in October, but professional exterminators had difficulties resolving the issue because of the rodents c

Houston we have a problem – rats have been dining out on everything from marijuana to psychedelic mushrooms in the city’s police evidence room. John Whitmire, the mayor of Houston, put it simply during a press conference: ‘We’ve got 400,

"Drug-addicted rats" are destroying drug evidence in Houston, potentially comprising 3,600 open drug-related cases

Rats with a hankering for illicit drugs are treating a police evidence room like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Houston Mayor John Whitmire last week joined the city's police chief and Harris County district attorney to announce a new effort to clear out old evidence from the city's police department.