How stringently are the marijuana laws prosecuted in Austin, Texas?

I am the caregiver and roommate for a friend with mental illness. I don't personally use it, but my friend smokes about 1 ounce every two weeks to stabilize his mood, and it seems to be helping him more than the psych meds. We once lived in CA where he was eligible for medical marijuana for his condition. Austin seems like it would be a much more tranquil, progressive place for us to live than our current home in Miami Beach. However, I've read that in Texas, people are routinely jailed for possession of even small amounts of marijuana. I know Travis County is more liberal than the other areas of Texas, but can someone tell me what types of penalties and fines are generally assessed in that area for possession of less than one ounce? My friend has prior convictions for possession in PA, FL, LA and VA, if that's a consideration. Thanks for your feedback!

This is actually a kinda complecated question to answer. The simple fact is inside of Austin there are 3 different police departments, which in turn all seem to have different policies about what they want to do after picking you up for pot. The is the state troopers, who have a downtown location, the APD which have a downtown and east side location, and the UTPD which thank God stay on in the UT area. In terms of who is the worst to get busted by the UT police are jerks and if they figure they personally cant get you bad enough they will call the state and not local police. I know thats pretty crappy right? Well as for the actual punishment it depends on the cop and department with troopers and UT being the worse. Punishment for under an ounce, you have about a 50 50 chance of getting away with anything like a ticket or less. Troopers, well just be thankful your getting a place to stay for the night. The biggest thing down here is while the citzens a liberal, the cop do not always follow this trend. In turn if you do have pot on you aviod anything that can link your friend to distribution charges, IE. more baggies, scales, ect. Other than that as long as you just smoke on private property and aren't just waving it around no one will take notice and care.

Austin is a very open city. If you stay downtown you should be fine

I'd say its pretty cool but by all means stay away from Williamson County (north of Austin) - their laws are way out of line.