Skip to main content

Penal Law § 220.28 · Article 220. Controlled Substances Offenses

Use of a child to commit a controlled substance offense

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)

§ 220.28 Use of a child to commit a controlled substance offense.

1. A person is guilty of use of a child to commit a controlled substance offense when, being eighteen years old or more, he or she commits a felony sale or felony attempted sale of a controlled substance in violation of this article and, as part of that criminal transaction, knowingly uses a child to effectuate such felony sale or felony attempted sale of such controlled substance.

2. For purposes of this section, "uses a child to effectuate the felony sale or felony attempted sale of such controlled substance" means conduct by which the actor: (a) conceals such controlled substance on or about the body or person of such child for the purpose of effectuating the criminal sale or attempted sale of such controlled substance to a third person; or (b) directs, forces or otherwise requires such child to sell or attempt to sell or offer direct assistance to the defendant in selling or attempting to sell such controlled substance to a third person.

For purposes of this section, "child" means a person less than sixteen years of age.

Use of a child to commit a controlled substance offense is a class E 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/PEN220.28
Text hash
sha256 ab4368df6804c05b65c9b45b2cef127a0e83b84b1a3c317951ea8b561ba6af39
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

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.