Is drug paraphernalia possession a misdemeanor in Florida?

Yes. Use or possession of drug paraphernalia is charged under Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1), and it is a misdemeanor of the first degree, carrying up to 1 year of imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000. The degree sets the maximum through Fla. Stat. § 775.082 and Fla. Stat. § 775.083. Manufacturing, delivering, or transporting paraphernalia, and delivering it to a minor, are separate and harsher offenses under other subsections of Fla. Stat. § 893.147.

What is the maximum penalty for drug paraphernalia possession in Florida?

Under Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1), use or possession of drug paraphernalia is a misdemeanor of the first degree, carrying up to 1 year of imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000. That maximum term and fine follow from the first-degree-misdemeanor classification through Fla. Stat. § 775.082 and Fla. Stat. § 775.083; a specific sentence turns on the conduct, the prior record, and the plea posture, and the controlling statute governs.

What counts as drug paraphernalia under the Florida statute?

Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1) reaches using, or possessing with intent to use, drug paraphernalia either to plant, cultivate, manufacture, process, store, or conceal a controlled substance, or to inject, ingest, inhale, or otherwise introduce a controlled substance into the human body, in each case in violation of chapter 893. Whether a given item was possessed with that intent is a fact-specific question read against the record. The offense is a misdemeanor of the first degree, carrying up to 1 year of imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000. This is general legal information for practitioners, not legal advice.

Is delivering or manufacturing drug paraphernalia treated the same as possessing it in Florida?

No. While use or possession under Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1) is a misdemeanor of the first degree, carrying up to 1 year of imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, manufacturing or delivering drug paraphernalia is a felony of the third degree under a separate subsection, delivering drug paraphernalia to a minor is a felony of the second degree, and transporting drug paraphernalia is a felony of the third degree. Those are separate, harsher offenses under Fla. Stat. § 893.147; the specific maximum for each turns on its own degree and is not computed here. The controlling statute governs.

Does the aggregate Florida sentencing data predict a drug paraphernalia sentence?

No. Statewide, across 3,937,598 analyzed charge dispositions in the public FDLE Clerk-of-Court data, 44% drew a recorded jail or prison sentence. That figure spans every charge type, not paraphernalia alone, and is a floor over recorded sentences because the confinement field is blank on many charges. It is a descriptive aggregate over past records, not a prediction of what any paraphernalia case will draw; the outcome in a specific case depends on the conduct, the prior record, plea posture, and any enhancement, and the controlling statute governs. This is general legal information for practitioners, not legal advice.

Guide · Florida drug paraphernalia

Florida drug paraphernalia penalties, straight from the statute.

Use or possession of drug paraphernalia in Florida is charged under Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1), and it is a misdemeanor of the first degree. That is the offense most people mean when they ask whether paraphernalia is a misdemeanor, and it is. What often gets missed is that the same section treats manufacturing, delivering, and transporting paraphernalia, and delivering it to a minor, as separate and harsher offenses. This is a working reference to the possession grade, the maximum it carries, and where those other offenses sit, with every figure quoted from the controlling statute, so the exposure conversation starts from the law rather than a guess.

Free · search by charge and county

See how sentences actually landed across Florida in the public FDLE Clerk-of-Court data, by charge category and county, with a downloadable CSV. No account, no upload.

Open the Florida sentencing-outcomes data study →

Possession of paraphernalia is a first-degree misdemeanor (Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1))

Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1) makes it unlawful to use, or to possess with intent to use, drug paraphernalia to plant, cultivate, manufacture, process, store, or conceal a controlled substance, or to inject, ingest, inhale, or otherwise introduce a controlled substance into the human body, in violation of chapter 893. A violation is a misdemeanor of the first degree. The statutory ceiling is fixed by that classification, and the sentence in a given case sits at or below that maximum and turns on the conduct, the prior record, and the plea posture. The degree sets the ceiling through Fla. Stat. § 775.082 and Fla. Stat. § 775.083.

Florida drug paraphernalia possession, offense and degree
Offense	Classification	Maximum jail	Maximum fine
Use or possession of drug paraphernalia § 893.147(1)	Misdemeanor of the first degree	up to 1 year	up to $1,000

Offense and degree quoted from Fla. Stat. § 893.147 (Florida Legislature, Online Sunshine); the maximum fine follows from the offense degree under Fla. Stat. § 775.083, and the maximum jail term follows from Fla. Stat. § 775.082. The statute controls; confirm the current text and the specific facts before relying on any figure.

Manufacture, delivery, and delivery to a minor are separate, harsher offenses

Possession is only the first subsection of Fla. Stat. § 893.147. The same statute reaches conduct beyond personal use, and grades it more seriously. These are named here so the possession grade above is not mistaken for the whole section; the specific maximum for each of these turns on its own degree and is not computed on this page.

Manufacture or delivery of drug paraphernalia (§ 893.147(2)) is a felony of the third degree.

Delivery of drug paraphernalia to a minor (§ 893.147(3)(a)) is a felony of the second degree.

Transportation of drug paraphernalia (§ 893.147(4)) is a felony of the third degree.

Degrees quoted from Fla. Stat. § 893.147. These offenses carry their own, higher ceilings; read the statute and the specific subsection before relying on any classification here.

What the aggregate sentencing data shows

Read the figure below as descriptive, not predictive. It is a statewide rate across all charge types, not paraphernalia alone, and is a floor over recorded sentences. These figures are not adjusted for offense severity, criminal history, plea posture, or case facts, they do not measure any prosecutor, court, or judge, and they are not a prediction of what any paraphernalia case will draw. Counties differ in case mix, so the figure reflects what and who is in the data.

The statute sets the exposure; the public records show how sentences actually landed. In the FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency Clerk-of-Court data, across 3,937,598 analyzed charge dispositions, 44% drew a recorded jail or prison sentence. That is a floor, not a true rate, because the confinement field is blank on many charges and is treated as non-incarceration. It spans every charge type, so it orients rather than predicts; the companion data study breaks the recorded incarceration rate and confinement length down by charge category and county.

Free · source-linked statute reference

Read the Florida Chapter 893 controlled-substances statute reference, linked to the official Florida Legislature text, alongside the free sentencing-outcomes data.

Open the Florida drug statute reference →

The encounter and the account start with the officer

Whatever the statutory exposure, a paraphernalia case often turns on the encounter and the officer's account of it, from the stop and the search to how the item and the alleged intent to use it were described. Before the penalty conversation, the leverage is frequently in how the case was built. BenchRecon's Officer Lookup searches the involved officer's Florida FDLE/CJSTC certification-discipline and incident-ledger record, every row cited to the underlying public record, so the impeachment and credibility angles surface before you draft the motion.

Reference

For the Florida Chapter 893 controlled-substances statutes, source-linked to the official text, see the Florida drug statute reference. For how sentences actually landed across the state, see the Florida sentencing-outcomes data study. For the full set of Florida charge references, start at the Florida criminal-defense references hub.

Common questions

Is drug paraphernalia possession a misdemeanor in Florida?: Yes. Use or possession of drug paraphernalia is charged under Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1), and it is a misdemeanor of the first degree, carrying up to 1 year of imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000. The degree sets the maximum through Fla. Stat. § 775.082 and Fla. Stat. § 775.083. Manufacturing, delivering, or transporting paraphernalia, and delivering it to a minor, are separate and harsher offenses under other subsections of Fla. Stat. § 893.147.
What is the maximum penalty for drug paraphernalia possession in Florida?: Under Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1), use or possession of drug paraphernalia is a misdemeanor of the first degree, carrying up to 1 year of imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000. That maximum term and fine follow from the first-degree-misdemeanor classification through Fla. Stat. § 775.082 and Fla. Stat. § 775.083; a specific sentence turns on the conduct, the prior record, and the plea posture, and the controlling statute governs.
What counts as drug paraphernalia under the Florida statute?: Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1) reaches using, or possessing with intent to use, drug paraphernalia either to plant, cultivate, manufacture, process, store, or conceal a controlled substance, or to inject, ingest, inhale, or otherwise introduce a controlled substance into the human body, in each case in violation of chapter 893. Whether a given item was possessed with that intent is a fact-specific question read against the record. The offense is a misdemeanor of the first degree, carrying up to 1 year of imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000. This is general legal information for practitioners, not legal advice.
Is delivering or manufacturing drug paraphernalia treated the same as possessing it in Florida?: No. While use or possession under Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1) is a misdemeanor of the first degree, carrying up to 1 year of imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, manufacturing or delivering drug paraphernalia is a felony of the third degree under a separate subsection, delivering drug paraphernalia to a minor is a felony of the second degree, and transporting drug paraphernalia is a felony of the third degree. Those are separate, harsher offenses under Fla. Stat. § 893.147; the specific maximum for each turns on its own degree and is not computed here. The controlling statute governs.
Does the aggregate Florida sentencing data predict a drug paraphernalia sentence?: No. Statewide, across 3,937,598 analyzed charge dispositions in the public FDLE Clerk-of-Court data, 44% drew a recorded jail or prison sentence. That figure spans every charge type, not paraphernalia alone, and is a floor over recorded sentences because the confinement field is blank on many charges. It is a descriptive aggregate over past records, not a prediction of what any paraphernalia case will draw; the outcome in a specific case depends on the conduct, the prior record, plea posture, and any enhancement, and the controlling statute governs. This is general legal information for practitioners, not legal advice.

This guide is general legal information for practitioners, not legal advice. The penalty figure is the statutory offense classification of Fla. Stat. § 893.147(1) and the maximum term and fine that follow from the offense degree under Fla. Stat. § 775.082 and Fla. Stat. § 775.083. Manufacturing, delivering, transporting, or delivering paraphernalia to a minor are separate, harsher offenses under other subsections of Fla. Stat. § 893.147 and are not computed here. An actual sentence varies with the conduct, the prior record, and any enhancement. Confirm every figure against the controlling statute and the record in front of you before relying on it.