For the main cocaine crimes, no. Simple possession and sale or transportation are charged under the same statutes, with the same sentencing ranges, whether the cocaine is powder or base (crack). Possession for sale of cocaine base still has its own statute, but since January 1, 2015, it has carried the same two, three, or four year range as powder cocaine. The older state-law differences in sentencing, probation, and vehicle forfeiture were removed by a 2014 law, and the probation statute involved was later repealed.

Simple possession: the same statute for both forms

Health and Safety Code section 11350 punishes simple possession of listed controlled substances. Its subdivision (a) reaches cocaine base through its cross-reference to “paragraph (1) of subdivision (f) of Section 11054,” in the same clause and at the same penalty as powder cocaine and the section’s other listed substances. There is no separate simple-possession statute for cocaine base.

Proposition 36 (2024) did not change that. Its new felony for people with two or more prior convictions for listed drug offenses who are found with a “hard drug,” Health and Safety Code section 11395, defines that term to cover cocaine and cocaine base alike.

Possession for sale: equal since 2015

Possession for sale of powder cocaine and many other controlled substances falls under Health and Safety Code section 11351, punishable by two, three, or four years. Possession for sale of cocaine base has its own statute, Health and Safety Code section 11351.5, which now carries the identical two, three, or four year range.

That parity dates from Senate Bill 1010 (2014), effective January 1, 2015. Before the bill, its Legislative Counsel’s Digest explains, possessing cocaine base for sale carried three, four, or five years. The bill brought that range down to match powder cocaine. Its findings describe powder and crack cocaine as “two forms of the same drug” and state the Legislature’s intent that they be treated “in an identical manner” when setting penalties.

Sale and transportation: same statute, same range

Selling, furnishing, or transporting cocaine for sale is charged under Health and Safety Code section 11352, punishable by three, four, or five years, or three, six, or nine years for transporting it between noncontiguous counties. Section 11352 lists cocaine base in the same subdivision, at the same penalty, as powder cocaine, and SB 1010 did not amend it. The pre-2015 difference at this level was in probation, covered next.

Probation and forfeiture

SB 1010 also changed two related rules, as its digest describes:

  • Probation. The probation statute then in force barred probation, except in unusual cases, for transporting or importing cocaine base for sale, selling it, or offering to sell it, and for possessing for sale 14.25 grams or more of cocaine base, compared with 57 grams or more of a substance containing powder cocaine. SB 1010 deleted those rules and set the same quantity thresholds for both forms.
  • Vehicle, boat, and airplane forfeiture. The threshold in Health and Safety Code section 11470 had been 14.25 grams of cocaine base but 28.5 grams of cocaine. SB 1010 made it 28.5 grams for either form, and the current text of section 11470 still uses that same figure for both.

Penal Code section 1203.073, the probation statute SB 1010 amended, has since been repealed by Senate Bill 73 (2021), effective January 1, 2022. The same bill rewrote Penal Code section 1203.07; its remaining probation limits involve using minors in certain drug offenses and do not reach cocaine in either form.

Why the disparity still gets mentioned

Federal law still treats the two forms differently. For federal trafficking charges under 21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1), the five-year mandatory minimum starts at 28 grams of a mixture containing cocaine base but 500 grams of a mixture containing powder cocaine, and the ten-year minimum at 280 grams versus 5 kilograms. That is a separate system that applies to federal prosecutions, not to charges under California law.

Getting help

Whether your case is charged as simple possession, possession for sale, or sale or transportation, and whether the substance is described as powder or base, decides which statute applies and what the state has to prove, even though the sentencing range no longer differs by form. The Law Offices of David S. Chesley can pin down the specific statute and penalty range that actually applies to your charge. Call (800) 755-5174 to discuss your case.