At 'Checkpoint Of The Stars,' Texas Sheriff Takes A Pass On Pot Cases

A federal inspection station on Interstate 10 in the West Texas desert earned the nickname "checkpoint of the stars" for all the entertainers who kept getting busted there. In the past six years, Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg, Nelly and Fiona Apple were all arrested for possession of marijuana.

These days, though, after a decision by a local lawman, everyone from personal pot smokers to medium-size marijuana traffickers can avoid jail.

The Sierra Blanca Border Patrol checkpoint was once the bane of pot smokers driving from Los Angeles to Texas. Green-suited federal agents and their uncanny drug dogs would make 20 to 30 busts a day.

"I had two little buds (of marijuana) wrapped up in my Dopp kit in my suitcase in the trunk of the car," recalls Austin writer and filmmaker Al Reinert, who was busted at the checkpoint two years ago. "The Border Patrol guys never would have found it if the dogs hadn't sniffed it out."

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