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Colorado Drug Possession Law

Colorado Drug Possession Penalties, C.R.S. § 18-18-403.5

What you are facing under C.R.S. § 18-18-403.5, how the penalties scale, and the questions an attorney needs to answer — under Colorado (CO) drug possession law.

Colorado (CO) — Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Substance

Offense class: Level 1 Drug Misdemeanor (4g or less of Schedule I/II); Level 4 Drug Felony (over 4g of Schedule I/II)

Incarceration

– 180 days (Level 1 Drug Misdemeanor); 1 year (Level 4 Drug Felony)

Maximum Fine

$1,000 (Level 1 DM); $100,000 (Level 4 DF)

Offense Class

Level 1 Drug Misdemeanor (4g or less of Schedule I/II); Level 4 Drug Felony (over 4g of Schedule I/II)

What this costs

Visible before you click.

$127Drug Possession Defense Playbook, delivered in Instant download.

Some legal-services sites publish their price openly. Some don't. Here's where each one lands today.

Every price on this site is the price. No “starting at.” No per-minute meter. No bait.

Colorado Drug Possession Penalty Range

FactorDetail
StatuteC.R.S. § 18-18-403.5
OffenseUnlawful Possession of a Controlled Substance
ClassLevel 1 Drug Misdemeanor (4g or less of Schedule I/II); Level 4 Drug Felony (over 4g of Schedule I/II)
Incarceration – 180 days (Level 1 Drug Misdemeanor); 1 year (Level 4 Drug Felony)
Maximum fine$1,000 (Level 1 DM); $100,000 (Level 4 DF)

Penalty Enhancements

Additional factors that can increase the sentence under Colorado law.

  • Over 4g of Schedule I/II (Level 4 Drug Felony)
  • Prior drug convictions

Colorado note: Colorado significantly reformed drug possession laws in 2019 (HB 19-1263). Possession of 4g or less of Schedule I/II is a Level 1 Drug Misdemeanor. Marijuana regulated separately under Amendment 64.

Federal judges with most drug-possession sentencing data in Colorado

These are aggregate frequencies — never a prediction about any specific case.

What you're afraid of

Colorado drug possession defendants tell us they're afraid of four things. Here's how we address each.

Every citation in your report links back to a real CourtListener URL or a real state statute page. Your attorney can verify everything in under five minutes. We sit alongside your attorney — we don't replace them.

  • What if I take the wrong plea — or the wrong sentence?

    Most defendants take the first plea offered. We pull the comparable cases in your district and your judge's prior rulings, so you can see what the floor actually is before deciding.

    See the Playbook

  • What if my attorney isn't actually listening — or preparing?

    Most defendants leave their attorney's office with more questions than they came in with. Not because attorneys are bad — the meeting is short and you didn't know what to ask. We hand you the questions, scored against your charge.

    Take the free Defense Score

  • I don't even know what I don't know.

    The hardest part of a criminal case is not knowing which questions matter. The Intelligence Brief pulls the most-cited opinions in your district + your charge, mapped to your judge's prior rulings, and surfaces the five questions that move the needle in front of this prosecutor.

    See what an Intelligence Brief covers

  • What if I bring my attorney a number they dismiss?

    If you bring your attorney a number they can't trace to a source, the conversation is over. Every number in our report is a hyperlink. Your attorney clicks, verifies, and the conversation continues.

    View a sample report

We're not here to replace your attorney. We're here to make sure you walk into their office knowing the right questions to ask.

What you're paying for is the time

Skip the 6-10 hours of reading. We already did it.

Defendants are already doing this work themselves — on r/legaladvice / r/Ask_Lawyers / Avvo Q&A, in Google searches, in the long thread of “what happens if I plead X” questions every public legal-help surface carries. The data is public. The reading is the work.

  • r/legaladvice + r/Ask_Lawyers (source): thousands of 'what happens if I plead X' threads, none of them indexed to your specific charge or your state's statute.

  • Avvo Q&A (source): per-charge plain-language threads, attorney answers gated behind per-minute meters.

  • Your state's official statute site: the actual statute text, the actual sentencing range, the actual enhancement triggers.

We hand you the synthesis — cited, hyperlinked, organized for your charge — for $127.

Get the Drug Possession Defense Playbook — $127

Free — takes 2 minutes

Is your Colorado drug case defense on track?

The free Defense Score checks 10 critical defense behaviors specific to drug-possession cases. Takes 2 minutes. Instant results.

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Drug Possession Defense Playbook

$127

26 questions that change how the next attorney meeting goes, a case stage roadmap, red flag checklist, and a case progress scorecard. Instant PDF download, relevant to Colorado defendants.

Delivery: Instant download

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Other Colorado defense topics

Facing a different charge in Colorado? Penalty ranges, enhancements, and defense questions for related crimes:

DUI in ColoradoAssault in ColoradoDomestic Violence in Colorado

This page provides legal information — not legal advice — about Colorado drug possession law as of the date of publication. Laws change. Verify current statutes with a licensed attorney in Colorado.