Pen. Code, § 11418 · Article 4.6. The Hertzberg-Alarcon California Prevention of Terrorism Act
Pen. Code, § 11418
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) (1) Any person, without lawful authority, who possesses, develops, manufactures, produces, transfers, acquires, or retains any weapon of mass destruction, shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for 4, 8, or 12 years.
(2) Any person who commits a violation of paragraph (1) and who has been previously convicted of Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740 shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for 5, 10, or 15 years.
(b) (1) Any person who uses or directly employs against another person a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread, disabling illness or injury in human beings shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life.
(2) Any person who uses or directly employs against another person a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread great bodily injury or death and causes the death of any human being shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole. Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent punishment instead under Section 190.2.
(3) Any person who uses a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread damage to or disruption of the food supply or “source of drinking water” as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 25249.11 of the Health and Safety Code shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 5, 8, or 12 years and by a fine of not more than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).
(4) Any person who maliciously uses against animals, crops, or seed and seed stock, a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread damage to or substantial diminution in the value of stock animals or crops, including seeds used for crops or product of the crops, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 4, 8, or 12 years and by a fine of not more than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).
(c) Any person who uses a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread and significant damage to public natural resources, including coastal waterways and beaches, public parkland, surface waters, ground water, and wildlife, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for three, four, or six years.
(d) (1) Any person who uses recombinant technology or any other biological advance to create new pathogens or more virulent forms of existing pathogens for use in any crime described in subdivision (b) shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 4, 8, or 12 years and by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).
(2) Any person who uses recombinant technology or any other biological advance to create new pathogens or more virulent forms of existing pathogens for use in any crime described in subdivision (c) shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for three, six, or nine years and by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).
(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent punishment instead pursuant to any other provision of law that imposes a greater or more severe punishment.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended (as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 500) by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 55. (AB 117) Effective June 30, 2011. Amending action (succeeding amendment by Stats. 2010, Ch. 178) operative October 1, 2011, pursuant to Secs. 68 and 69 of Ch. 39. Amended version operative January 1, 2012, pursuant to Stats. 2010, Ch. 178, Sec. 107.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=11418.
- Text hash
- sha256 ed88c98457fcbe9482ccc9cbc910750ab810414b96b4bd40904dc8fc43a37dd0
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Health and Safety Code
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, § 190.2Printed as Section 190.2
- Pen. Code, § 1170Printed as Section 1170
- Pen. Code, § 11411Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
- Pen. Code, § 11412Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
- Pen. Code, § 11413Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
- Pen. Code, § 11418.1Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
- Pen. Code, § 11418.5Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
- Pen. Code, § 11419Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
- Pen. Code, § 11460Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
- Pen. Code, § 18715Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
- Pen. Code, § 18725Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
- Pen. Code, § 18740Printed as Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740
Cited by 10 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 11418. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, § 629.52Printed as Section 11418
- Pen. Code, § 667Printed as Section 11418
- Pen. Code, § 667.5Printed as Section 11418
- Pen. Code, § 787Printed as Sections 11418, 11418.5, and 11419
- Pen. Code, § 1001.21Printed as Section 11418
- Pen. Code, § 1001.36Printed as Section 11418
- Pen. Code, § 1001.80Printed as Section 11418
- Pen. Code, § 1170.12Printed as Section 11418
- Pen. Code, § 1192.7Printed as Section 11418
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.