Rats in police evidence lockers are getting high on seized drugs — and putting cases in jeopardy

These rats are breaking into police precincts — to get high on drugs.

Drugged-up Texas rodents have reportedly been gobbling up marijuana and magic mushrooms stored as evidence in police precincts, potentially putting hundreds of cases in jeopardy, KHOU reported.

“Just one example, we’ve got 400,000 pounds of marijuana in storage that the rats are the only ones enjoying,” Mayor John Whitmire told a news conference.

The problem is so serious that the district attorney for Houston has alerted defense attorneys in more than 3,600 open drug-related cases, and given police permission to destroy drug evidence from cleared cases from before 2015.

Joshua Reiss, general counsel at the Harris County District Attorney, said the pests got into marijuana as well as packaging containing mushrooms.

While the rodents may be going big in Texas, it’s a nationwide problem, Reiss reckons.

“Narcotics evidence rooms and evidence rooms in general that are filled to the brims with old evidence, it’s a national issue,” he said.

Police officials say the problem dates back decades. In March last year, cops in New Orleans found rodents consuming drugs in their department HQ’s evidence room.

“The rats are eating our marijuana,” NOPD Chief Anne Kirkpatrick told a city Criminal Justice Committee meeting at the time.

“They’re all high.”