California drug laws split sharply between personal use and distribution. Since Proposition 47 passed in 2014, simple possession of most controlled substances is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in county jail. Sales, transportation for sale, and manufacturing remain serious felonies carrying multi-year state prison sentences. Proposition 36, which took effect in 2025, pulled back part of the leniency by creating a new “treatment-mandated felony” for people with two or more prior drug convictions caught with fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, or methamphetamine.1Legislative Analyst’s Office. Proposition 36 Ballot Analysis Cannabis is legal for adults 21 and over within specific possession and cultivation limits set by Proposition 64.
Simple Possession Penalties
Possessing a controlled substance for personal use is charged under Health and Safety Code 11350 for narcotics like cocaine and heroin, and Health and Safety Code 11377 for non-narcotics like methamphetamine and certain prescription drugs. Both are misdemeanors for most people, carrying up to one year in county jail plus a fine of up to $70.2California Legislative Information. California Code Health and Safety Code 113503California Legislative Information. California Code Health and Safety Code 11377
There is one long-standing exception. If you have a prior conviction for a serious violent felony or a sex offense requiring registration, simple possession reverts to a felony and carries a state prison sentence.2California Legislative Information. California Code Health and Safety Code 11350
Treatment-Mandated Felonies Under Prop 36
Starting in 2025, Proposition 36 added a second route to felony charges. If you possess fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, or a similar substance and have two or more prior drug convictions, prosecutors can charge a treatment-mandated felony. Complete the court-ordered treatment program and the charges are dismissed. Refuse treatment or wash out of the program and you face up to three years in state prison.1Legislative Analyst’s Office. Proposition 36 Ballot Analysis
Being Under the Influence
Health and Safety Code 11550 makes it a separate misdemeanor to be under the influence of a controlled substance, even with no drugs in your possession. A first conviction carries up to a year in county jail. A third conviction within seven years triggers a mandatory 180-day minimum if you refuse a court-offered rehabilitation program. Being under the influence of cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine while carrying a loaded firearm is a wobbler, meaning prosecutors can file it as either a misdemeanor or a felony.
Sales, Transportation, and Trafficking
Distribution offenses were untouched by Proposition 47 and remain felonies.
Possession for Sale
Health and Safety Code 11351 covers possessing narcotics such as cocaine, heroin, and certain prescription opioids with intent to sell. The sentence is two, three, or four years in prison.4California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 11351 Health and Safety Code 11378 covers possession for sale of non-narcotics like methamphetamine, ecstasy, and certain hallucinogens, with the same two-, three-, or four-year range.5California Legislative Information. California Code Health and Safety Code 11378
Transportation and Sales
Actually selling, importing, or transporting controlled substances brings longer terms. Health and Safety Code 11352 covers narcotics and carries three, four, or five years. The word “transports” in the statute means transporting for the purpose of sale, not simply moving drugs for personal use.6California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 11352 Health and Safety Code 11379 covers the same conduct for non-narcotic substances and carries two, three, or four years.7California Legislative Information. California Code Health and Safety Code 11379
Selling to Minors
Under Health and Safety Code 11353, selling or furnishing narcotics to a minor, using a minor to transport or sell drugs, or soliciting a minor to use drugs is punishable by three, six, or nine years in state prison.
Fentanyl Weight Enhancements
California stacks additional time on fentanyl trafficking by weight. Selling or distributing more than one kilogram triggers an automatic three-year sentence enhancement, and the enhancements scale up to 25 additional years for quantities above 80 kilograms. These add on top of the base sentence for the underlying offense.
Manufacturing and Paraphernalia
Manufacturing a controlled substance under Health and Safety Code 11379.6 is among the most heavily punished drug offenses in the code. It covers production by chemical extraction, synthesis, or any preparation process, and carries three, five, or seven years in state prison plus a fine of up to $50,000.8California Legislative Information. California Code Health and Safety Code 11379.6 Even acquiring precursor chemicals can trigger the charge.
Possessing drug paraphernalia used for injecting or smoking controlled substances is a misdemeanor under Health and Safety Code 11364.9California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 11364 The statute sets no penalty of its own, so the default misdemeanor punishment under Penal Code 19 applies: up to six months in county jail, a fine up to $1,000, or both.10California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 19
Cannabis Rules for Adults
Proposition 64 made recreational cannabis legal for adults 21 and over, but with hard limits that are easy to cross by accident.
Possession and Cultivation
An adult may possess up to 28.5 grams of cannabis flower and up to eight grams of concentrated cannabis such as vape cartridges or edibles. You can cultivate up to six living plants per residence and keep what those plants produce.11California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 11362.1
Going over the possession limit is a misdemeanor for anyone 18 or older, punishable by up to six months in county jail and a $500 fine.12California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 11357 Growing more than six plants is also normally a misdemeanor with the same penalty, but it becomes a felony if you have prior serious violent felony convictions, two or more prior cultivation convictions, or if your grow causes environmental damage such as illegal water diversion or hazardous waste violations.13California Legislative Information. California Code Health and Safety Code 11358
Where Cannabis Can Be Used
Cannabis use is permitted on private property. You cannot use it in any public place, anywhere tobacco smoking is prohibited, or within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center, or youth center while children are present. There is a residence exception to the 1,000-foot rule: if you live near one of those facilities, you can consume cannabis inside your home as long as the smoke is not detectable on the school or center grounds.14California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 11362.3
Cannabis in Vehicles
Driving under the influence of cannabis is illegal. Having an open container or loose flower in the passenger area of a vehicle is an infraction carrying a $100 fine. The rule does not apply if the cannabis is in the trunk.15California Legislative Information. California Vehicle Code 23222
Cannabis and Employment
Since January 2024, California employers generally cannot penalize you for using cannabis off the job and away from the workplace. AB 2188 added that protection to the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. Employers can still prohibit on-the-job use and can still drug-test, but they cannot rely on tests that detect only non-psychoactive metabolites, which linger long after any impairment has passed.16California Legislative Information. Assembly Bill 2188
The law carves out building and construction trades, positions requiring federal security clearances, and any job where federal law or regulation requires drug testing as a condition of employment or federal funding.16California Legislative Information. Assembly Bill 2188 Federal Department of Transportation safety-sensitive workers, including commercial truck drivers and airline personnel, are still tested for marijuana regardless of state law.
Diversion and Clearing Old Convictions
California gives personal-use defendants two major off-ramps.
Penal Code 1000 Pretrial Diversion
If you are charged with simple possession under HSC 11350, 11357, 11364, 11377, or certain related offenses, you may qualify for pretrial diversion under Penal Code 1000. The program requires completing a court-approved drug treatment program lasting between 12 and 18 months.17California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1000 Finish the program and the charges are dismissed with no conviction on your record.
Eligibility has limits. You cannot have a drug conviction in the past five years, a felony conviction in the past five years, or a charge involving violence, and the offense cannot involve conduct beyond the possession charges listed in the statute.17California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1000
Proposition 47 Resentencing and Redesignation
Proposition 47 also reaches backward. Penal Code 1170.18 lets anyone previously convicted of a felony for simple possession under HSC 11350, 11357, or 11377 petition to have that felony reclassified as a misdemeanor. If you are still serving the sentence, you can petition for resentencing. If you have already finished, you can apply to have the felony redesignated. The court must grant the change unless it finds resentencing would pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety.18California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1170.18 The path is closed to anyone with a prior conviction for a serious violent felony or a sex offense requiring registration.
Federal Law Still Applies
Cannabis remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law, classified alongside heroin and LSD with no recognized medical use.19Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 21 USC 812 – Schedules of Controlled Substances A presidential executive order has directed rescheduling to Schedule III, but as of early 2026 that process is not finalized. Every cannabis transaction legal under California law is still technically a federal crime until it is.
Federal prosecution of individuals following state cannabis law is rare. The conflict bites hardest in federally regulated spaces: you cannot bring cannabis onto federal property, including national parks and military installations; federal employees and contractors can be terminated for cannabis use; and DOT safety-sensitive workers are tested regardless of state law.
Immigration Consequences for Non-Citizens
If you are not a U.S. citizen, a California drug conviction can carry consequences that dwarf the criminal penalty. A conviction for virtually any controlled substance offense, including a simple misdemeanor possession, makes a non-citizen deportable under federal immigration law.20Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens The only statutory exception is a single offense of possessing 30 grams or less of marijuana for personal use.
Inadmissibility rules reach further. Any drug conviction, including that marijuana exception, can make a non-citizen inadmissible and block a green card application, re-entry after travel abroad, or adjustment of status. Immigration authorities can also find someone inadmissible without a conviction, based on admissions during an interview or a “reason to believe” the person participated in drug trafficking. A misdemeanor possession a citizen might resolve through diversion can permanently derail a non-citizen’s immigration case. Anyone without U.S. citizenship facing a California drug charge should talk to an immigration attorney before accepting any plea.