Class D Drugs in Massachusetts: Substances, Penalties, and Defenses

Class D drugs in Massachusetts are the state’s lowest-penalty criminal drug category under Chapter 94C, and the group is dominated by marijuana alongside a short list of barbiturates and volatile nitrites. Marijuana sits in an unusual spot: it’s still technically a Class D substance, but a parallel law, Chapter 94G, legalizes limited personal use for adults 21 and older. Cross the lines that law draws, or possess any other Class D drug without a prescription, and you’re back inside the criminal code.

What Substances Count as Class D

Section 31 of Chapter 94C splits Class D into two groups. The first is a set of sedatives and barbiturates: phenobarbital, barbital, meprobamate, chloral hydrate, methohexital, ethchlorvynol, ethinamate, methylphenobarbital, paraldehyde, petrichloral, and chloral betaine. These have accepted medical uses and a lower abuse potential than the drugs in Classes A through C, which include heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, and oxycodone.¹

The second group is marijuana plus three nitrites: butyl nitrite, isobutyl nitrite, and 1-nitrosoxy-methyl-propane.¹ Marijuana is what almost every real-world Class D case involves. Two ballot measures rewrote how the state handles it. Question 2 in 2008 turned possession of an ounce or less into a $100 civil fine. Question 4 in 2016 legalized recreational possession for adults 21 and older and created Chapter 94G.² The old Chapter 94C penalties still bite when conduct falls outside what 94G allows.

What Adults Can Legally Possess and Grow

If you’re 21 or older, Chapter 94G lets you carry up to one ounce of marijuana outside your home, with no more than five grams in concentrate form. At home, the ceiling is ten ounces, plus whatever you harvest from your own plants.³

Cultivation is capped at six plants per adult and twelve per household, no matter how many adults live there. You can also give up to one ounce to another adult without payment, as long as you don’t advertise the transfer. Posting it for sale online is not a gift.

None of this covers the other Class D substances. Possessing a Class D barbiturate or nitrite without a valid prescription is a criminal offense under Section 34, with no personal-use exception.

Possession Penalties

Penalties scale with the substance, the quantity, and your age.

Marijuana Civil Range

For adults 21 and older, holding between one and two ounces outside the home, or growing between seven and twelve plants as an individual, draws only a civil penalty of up to $100 and forfeiture of the excess. No criminal record and no jail.⁴

Marijuana Criminal Range

Past two ounces outside the home or ten ounces inside, the conduct becomes criminal under Section 34 of Chapter 94C. Possessing more than one ounce is punishable by up to six months in a house of correction, a $500 fine, or both.⁵ That’s lighter than what other Class D substances carry.

Other Class D Substances

Possessing a Class D barbiturate or nitrite without a prescription carries up to one year in jail, a fine up to $1,000, or both. A second or subsequent conviction pushes the ceiling to two years and $2,000.⁵

Distribution and Manufacturing

Distributing, manufacturing, cultivating, or possessing with intent to distribute a Class D substance without a license is a separate and heavier offense under Section 32C. A first conviction carries up to two years in jail and a fine of $500 to $5,000.⁶

A second or later conviction raises the maximum to two and a half years and the fine range to $1,000 through $10,000. Priors from federal court and other states count toward that second-offense treatment.⁶

School Zone Enhancement

Section 32J adds a heavy layer for drug offenses near schools when specific aggravating facts are present. The enhancement reaches anyone who commits a Class D distribution offense (or any offense under Sections 32 through 32I) within 300 feet of a school or 100 feet of a public park or playground, between 5:00 a.m. and midnight, and who also used violence, possessed a weapon, directed someone else in committing a drug felony, or committed a trafficking or distribution-to-minors offense in the same incident.⁷

When it applies, the sentence carries a mandatory minimum of two years, with a maximum of fifteen years in state prison or two and a half years in a house of correction. A fine of $1,000 to $10,000 may be added but cannot substitute for the prison term. The school zone sentence runs consecutively to the sentence on the underlying drug offense. Not knowing you were near a school is not a defense.

Driving Under the Influence of Marijuana

Massachusetts treats marijuana-impaired driving the same way it treats alcohol under Chapter 90, Section 24. The penalties climb quickly:

First offense: $500 to $5,000 fine, up to two and a half years in jail, or both. Pretrial diversion may be available.
Second offense: $600 to $10,000 fine and 60 days to two and a half years in jail, with at least 30 days served before eligibility for probation, parole, or good-conduct credit.
Third offense: $1,000 to $15,000 fine and 180 days to two and a half years in a house of correction, or two and a half to five years in state prison, with 150 days minimum served before release.

Each conviction also triggers a license suspension or revocation.⁸ There is no reliable roadside marijuana equivalent to the breathalyzer, so officers lean on field sobriety observations and drug recognition evaluations. That makes these cases more contestable at trial, but the exposure is the same.

If You’re Under 21

Anyone under 21 who buys, tries to buy, or arranges to obtain marijuana faces a civil penalty of up to $100 and must complete a drug awareness program. The same civil treatment applies to underage cultivation of up to twelve plants.⁴ These are infractions, not crimes, and won’t appear on a criminal record.

A qualifying patient under 21 who holds a valid medical marijuana registration card is exempt from these penalties and may possess marijuana as authorized by the medical program.

Sealing a Class D Record

Old Class D convictions don’t have to stay on your record. You can petition the Commissioner of Probation to seal them under Chapter 276, Section 100A. The standard waits are three years after a misdemeanor and seven years after a felony, both measured from the end of any incarceration, and you must stay conviction-free during that period.⁹

Marijuana possession often qualifies for faster treatment. Section 100A allows any offense that is no longer a crime to be sealed immediately, with no waiting period. Because possessing two ounces or less of marijuana is no longer criminal for adults, old convictions for that conduct can be sealed right away by mailing a completed petition to the Commissioner of Probation in Boston.

Once a record is sealed, most employers can’t ask about it on an initial application, and you can legally answer that you have no record. Sealed records can still be considered by a court at sentencing on any future criminal case. The expedited path covers only simple possession, not distribution or possession with intent. As of early 2026, Massachusetts still does not seal records automatically; every case runs through the petition process.

Defenses That Work

The strongest defense in most Class D cases is challenging the search. The Fourth Amendment and Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights both bar unreasonable searches and seizures. If police searched you, your car, or your home without a valid warrant, proper consent, or a recognized exception, the evidence can be suppressed and the case often collapses.¹⁰

Showing that the possession fit within legal limits is another direct answer. If you’re 21 or older and had an ounce or less outside your home, no offense occurred, and the prosecution has to prove the amount exceeded the threshold. The same logic covers cultivation within the six-plant individual and twelve-plant household caps.³

Medical marijuana patients get an extra layer. A certified qualifying patient may possess up to a 60-day supply under state law.¹¹

Federal Law Still Applies

Marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act. The Department of Justice proposed reclassifying it to Schedule III in April 2024, which would narrow but not close the gap with state law. As of early 2026, the reclassification has not been finalized.¹²

Federal authorities generally don’t prosecute people who follow state marijuana law, but the risk isn’t zero. Marijuana income is subject to special tax treatment under Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code. Federally regulated employers in transportation and defense contracting have to enforce zero-tolerance policies. Noncitizens can face immigration consequences for conduct that Massachusetts allows. If you hold a federal security clearance, work in a regulated industry, or aren’t a U.S. citizen, the federal classification matters more to you than the state rules do.

1
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94C Section 31
2
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 2016 Statewide Question 4
3
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 7
4
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94G Section 13
5
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94C Section 34
6
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94C Section 32C
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 94C Section 32J
8
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 90 Section 24
9
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 276 Section 100A
10
Mass.gov. Massachusetts Declaration of Rights Article 14
11
Cannabis Control Commission Massachusetts. Know the Laws
12
Congress.gov. The Federal Status of Marijuana and the Policy Gap with States