Drug possession charges in Jackson Hole and Teton County.
Wyoming has legalized nothing: not medical marijuana, not the gummy from a Colorado dispensary, not the vape pen that was lawful until the car crossed the state line. A possession charge here is a state crime, up to a year in jail for a personal amount and a felony above it, and the form of the product decides which before anyone reads the report. I defend these cases in the Teton County Circuit Court, and in most first cases the goal is a dismissal without a conviction, starting with whether the search was lawful at all.
Call or text me. Clients get my cell number from day one, and I answer. Just been arrested or charged? Here's what happens next.
Three things that decide a possession case.
Simple possession is a misdemeanor, up to twelve months and $1,000, within the statute's amounts: three ounces of plant, three grams of powder or pills, three-tenths of a gram of liquid (W.S. § 35-7-1031(c)). Above the line the same substance is a felony.
For anything not flower, the felony line is three-tenths of a gram, less than the fill of an ordinary cartridge, and the whole product is weighed, carrier included. There is no column for edibles, so which column a gummy belongs in is the first fight.
The state must prove you knew the substance was there and had the ability and intent to control it. A bag in the console of a four-person car is a question, not an answer, until someone speaks on the shoulder.
What the charge carries.
Ceilings, not sentences, from the Wyoming Controlled Substances Act after the 2026 session.
Marijuana, hemp, and the card
Marijuana in every form is Schedule I. On July 7, 2026, the Attorney General kept it there after the federal move of medical marijuana to Schedule III (W.S. § 35-7-1011(d)). No prescription for marijuana is valid, whatever another state's card says. Since July 1, 2024, Wyoming's definition of hemp counts every psychoactive isomer of THC toward the three-tenths of one percent limit (W.S. § 11-51-101). CBD without THC is lawful, but a label that says hemp is a claim the state laboratory will test, not a defense. Keep the packaging.
| Charge | Class | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Possession within the amounts: 3 oz plant, 3 g powder or pills, 3/10 g liquid (§ 35-7-1031(c)(i)) | Misdemeanor | 12 months, $1,000 |
| The same, third or later possession conviction | Felony (five-year maximum) | 5 years, $5,000 |
| Over the amounts: methamphetamine or a Schedule I–II narcotic (cocaine, heroin, fentanyl) (c)(ii) | Felony | 7 years, $15,000 |
| Over the amounts: any other Schedule I–III substance (marijuana, THC oil, psilocybin, MDMA) (c)(iii) | Felony | 5 years, $10,000 |
| Over the amounts: Schedule IV (alprazolam, diazepam, tramadol) (c)(iv) | Felony | 2 years, $2,500 |
| Schedule V, any amount (c)(v) | Misdemeanor | 1 year, $1,000 |
| Using, or under the influence of, a Schedule I–III substance (§ 35-7-1039) | Misdemeanor | 6 months, $750 |
| Possession with intent to deliver: methamphetamine or a Schedule I–II narcotic (§ 35-7-1031(a)(i)) | Felony | 20 years, $25,000 |
| Possession with intent to deliver: any other Schedule I–III substance (a)(ii) | Felony | 10 years, $10,000 |
| Delivering, or possessing with intent to deliver, paraphernalia (§ 35-7-1056) | Misdemeanor | 6 months, $750 |
From W.S. §§ 35-7-1031, 35-7-1039 and 35-7-1056 as compiled by the Legislative Service Office after the 2026 session. Ceilings, not sentences. The state act has no offense of simply carrying paraphernalia; a pipe is evidence of the possession charge, not a second state charge, though a town ordinance may differ.
Where a possession case is won.
It becomes a drug case in the first ninety seconds of the stop, and it ends, in most first cases, without a conviction.
- The stop. Highway 22, Highway 89, Broadway at two in the morning. The Wyoming Supreme Court has long held that the smell of marijuana alone gives probable cause to search the car, so the argument is seldom about the smell. It is about what was said.
- The search. Without odor, a warrant, or an arrest, the officer needs your consent, which is how a bad search becomes a lawful one. You may decline, and then say nothing else. A court can examine a wait for the dog later; a signed consent form, never.
- The deferral. A person with no prior drug conviction may be placed on probation without a judgment of guilt; then the court "shall discharge the person and dismiss the proceedings" (W.S. § 35-7-1037). The general deferral does the same (W.S. § 7-13-301). Each, once in a lifetime.
- The record. A deferral is not an expungement; the arrest stays in the state repository, and the expungement page explains what can be sealed afterward. It lets you answer the question every employer and landlord here asks, whether you have been convicted, with a truthful no.
Schedules, the park line, and cost.
The schedules, weight, the park boundary, treatment court, the cost
The schedules, and what is weighed
Wyoming's five schedules track the federal ones by name. Schedule I holds heroin, LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and marijuana with every form of THC. Schedule II holds cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, oxycodone, and the amphetamine in an Adderall tablet carried in the wrong bottle. Ketamine sits in III; alprazolam, diazepam and tramadol in IV; codeine cough syrups in V. The lists move when federal law moves unless the state objects, and in 2026 it did. The hemp limit counts delta-8 and delta-10 as well as delta-9. A third possession conviction at any amount carries up to five years, which makes it a felony under Wyoming's definition (W.S. § 6-10-101) even though the subsection still uses the word misdemeanor. The statute's one built-in exception is the prescription. Under subsection (d) the weight the state uses includes the carrier, the cutting agent, and "any other substance," packaging excepted. Real hemp is still exempt (W.S. § 35-7-1063).
A stop in the county and a stop in the park
A driver stopped with a gram of marijuana on Broadway or the Village Road answers to the state statute, the county attorney, and a six-person jury in Circuit Court. Take that driver north on Highway 89 past the Grand Teton boundary and the case changes hands: a Park Service regulation, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a federal magistrate judge, and no jury. The page on marijuana and drug charges in Yellowstone and Grand Teton is about that case. Both kinds come through my office.
Treatment court
For the person whose problem is not a vape pen but an addiction, Teton County runs a court-supervised treatment program through the Circuit Court, with treatment by Mental Health & Recovery Services of Jackson Hole and supervision shared among the police, the sheriff and state probation. Admission is case by case and the program is demanding by design. It is not the answer for a visitor with an edible. It can be the answer for a resident whose third case is on its way, because the third case is the felony. The general deferral, on the state's consent, carries probation of up to thirty-six months with a discharge possible after one year; which deferral to ask for, and whether to ask at all when the search is bad, is a judgment about your next ten years, not a form.
What a conviction costs here
The fine is the smallest part. A drug conviction in Wyoming does not take an adult's driver's license; the suspension in W.S. § 31-7-128(f) applies to drivers under nineteen. It does other things that matter in this valley. Housing in Teton County runs on background checks, and a landlord choosing among forty applications does not read the statute. The resort, the hospital, the school district and the outfitters ask the conviction question on their forms. Federal law bars an unlawful user of a controlled substance from possessing a firearm (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3)), which in a hunting county is not an abstraction, although the Supreme Court held in June 2026 that the statute cannot be applied to a person on the strength of marijuana use alone (United States v. Hemani); it still reaches someone armed while intoxicated, and the Court left its application to users of other drugs unresolved. For the seasonal worker on a visa or the green-card applicant, any controlled-substance conviction is a separate emergency; the page on immigration consequences explains why, and it should be read before any plea is entered. One consequence no longer applies: since 2021 a drug conviction does not suspend federal student aid.
Asked about Wyoming drug charges.
Is marijuana legal in Wyoming in 2026?
I have a medical marijuana card from Montana or Colorado. Does it help in Teton County?
Can a vape cartridge really be charged as a felony in Wyoming?
Will I go to jail for a first marijuana possession charge in Jackson?
I was a passenger. Can I be charged for drugs found in someone else's car?
I live out of state. What happens if I just don't come back for the court date?
Start with a confidential conversation with Aaron Herzberg.
Criminal matters begin with a thirty-minute call. Book it through the chat button in the corner of this page, day or night, and it goes straight onto my calendar; or send the note here and my office will call you, usually the same business day. Bring the citation or charging paperwork if you have it, and call or text any time.
40 E Simpson Ave, Jackson, WY 83001 · by appointment · video consultations for out-of-state clients · info@puzzlegroup.com