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Rhode Island Drug Possession Law

Rhode Island Drug Possession Penalties, R.I. Gen. Laws § 21-28-4.01(c)

What you are facing under R.I. Gen. Laws § 21-28-4.01(c), how the penalties scale, and the questions an attorney needs to answer — under Rhode Island (RI) drug possession law.

Rhode Island (RI) — Possession of a Controlled Substance

Offense class: Misdemeanor (personal use under 2014 reform); Felony (larger amounts)

Incarceration

– 1 year (misdemeanor); 3 years (subsequent)

Maximum Fine

$500 (first); $1,000 (subsequent)

Offense Class

Misdemeanor (personal use under 2014 reform); Felony (larger amounts)

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.

Rhode Island Drug Possession Penalty Range

FactorDetail
StatuteR.I. Gen. Laws § 21-28-4.01(c)
OffensePossession of a Controlled Substance
ClassMisdemeanor (personal use under 2014 reform); Felony (larger amounts)
Incarceration – 1 year (misdemeanor); 3 years (subsequent)
Maximum fine$500 (first); $1,000 (subsequent)

Penalty Enhancements

Additional factors that can increase the sentence under Rhode Island law.

  • Possession near school
  • Prior drug convictions (subsequent offense enhanced)

Rhode Island note: Rhode Island reclassified simple possession as a misdemeanor in 2014 (previously felony). Personal-use amounts only. Distribution quantities remain felony.

Federal judges with most drug-possession sentencing data in Rhode Island

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

What you're afraid of

Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island drug case defense on track?

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

Check your defense score

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 Rhode Island defendants.

Delivery: Instant download

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Other Rhode Island defense topics

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

DUI in Rhode IslandAssault in Rhode IslandDomestic Violence in Rhode Island

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