Penal Law § 220.16 · Article 220. Controlled Substances Offenses
Criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 220.16 Criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree.
A person is guilty of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree when he knowingly and unlawfully possesses:
1. a narcotic drug with intent to sell it; or
2. a stimulant, hallucinogen, hallucinogenic substance, or lysergic acid diethylamide, with intent to sell it and has previously been con-victed of an offense defined in article two hundred twenty or the attempt or conspiracy to commit any such offense; or
3. a stimulant with intent to sell it and said stimulant weighs one gram or more; or
4. lysergic acid diethylamide with intent to sell it and said lysergic acid diethylamide weighs one milligram or more; or
5. a hallucinogen with intent to sell it and said hallucinogen weighs twenty-five milligrams or more; or
6. a hallucinogenic substance with intent to sell it and said hallucinogenic substance weighs one gram or more; or
7. one or more preparations, compounds, mixtures or substances containing methamphetamine, its salts, isomers or salts of isomers with intent to sell it and said preparations, compounds, mixtures or substances are of an aggregate weight of one-eighth ounce or more; or
8. a stimulant and said stimulant weighs five grams or more; or
9. lysergic acid diethylamide and said lysergic acid diethylamide weighs five milligrams or more; or
10. a hallucinogen and said hallucinogen weighs one hundred twenty-five milligrams or more; or
11. a hallucinogenic substance and said hallucinogenic substance weighs five grams or more; or
12. one or more preparations, compounds, mixtures or substances containing a narcotic drug and said preparations, compounds, mixtures or substances are of an aggregate weight of one-half ounce or more; or
13. phencyclidine and said phencyclidine weighs one thousand two hundred fifty milligrams or more.
Criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree is a class B felony.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN220.16
- Text hash
- sha256 88eb7f5eca3fa5949b40c1b028a72e01cfd8150a8c8ccb88dd2e66dcacd6249d
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
- The Senate prints "con-" at the end of a line and "victed" at the start of the next; the line break is closed up and the hyphen kept.
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.