2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FOUR - Health and Sanitation (§§ 1 — 15010) › PART V - Controlled Substances (§§ 2101 — 2608) › Chapter 111 - Controlled Substances Act of Puerto Rico (§§ 2101 — 2608) › Subchapter IV - Offenses and Penalties (§§ 2401 — 2415) › § 2411b - Paraphernalia related to controlled substances; definition; criteria; penalties

(a) Paraphernalia. — Paraphernalia related to controlled substances comprises any utensil, object, item, device, equipment, product or material of any sort that is used, or designed or destined to the planting, growing, cultivating, harvesting, manufacturing, fabrication, compounding or combining, converting, production, processing, preparation, testing, analysis, packaging, repackaging, storage, conservation, concealing or for the ingestion, inhalation or introduction into the human body by any other means of a controlled substance in violation of this chapter. It includes, but is not limited to the following:
(1) The equipment or set of items, objets or tools used, or destined or designed for use in the planting, growing, cultivation and harvesting of any species of plant that is a controlled substance or from which a controlled substance is derived. The equipment or set of items, tools or articles used, or destined or designed to be used for greenhouse-growing of marijuana or other plants classified as controlled substances, such as fans, extractor, voltage converters, hydrophom lamps, chronographs, thermometers, switches, high-voltage light bulbs, small hydraulic light bulbs, rotors, rosettes, carbonic acid tanks, aluminum reflectors for lamps, plastic webbing, [fluorescent] light tubes, electric wiring, rotating lamp arms, among others.
(2) The equipment or set of items, objects, or tools used, or destined or designed to be used in the manufacture, compounding, conversion, production, processing, or preparation of controlled substances.
(3) Isomeric devices used, or destined or designed for use in increasing the potency of any species of plant that is a controlled substance.
(4) Testing equipment, or chemicals or alcohol used, or destined or designed for use in the identification, analysis or measurement of the potency, effectiveness, purity or quality of controlled substances.
(5) Scales or balances used, or destined or designed for use in weighing or measuring controlled substances.
(6) Diluting and adulterating agents such as quinine hydrochlorate mannitol, manna, dextrose and lactose, dry milk, Bolivian rock, sodium bicarbonate, lidocaine, benzocaine, baby laxative, formaldehyde, chalk, soap powder, ground pills, rat poison, wheat flour, ammonia for cooking crack, among others, used, or destined or designed for use in the dilution or cutting of controlled substances.
(7) Gins, screens, or sieves used, or destined or designed for use in the removal of twigs and seeds or to clean or refine any controlled substance.
(8) Mixers, cups, bowls, containers, food processors, hand mills or grinders, spoons, and mixing devices used, or destined or designed for use in combining, compounding or mixing controlled substances.
(9) Capsules, balloons or flasks, envelopes, plastic or cellophane bags, and other containers used, or destined or designed for use in packing small amounts of controlled substances.
(10) Containers or other objects used, or designed or destined for use in the storage or concealment of controlled substances.
(11) Droppers, cookers, or other devices or items in which drugs are cooked to be injected, such as bottle caps or tops, bottle bottoms, spoons, and other similar objects.
(12) Items used, or destined or designed for use in ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing marihuana, cocaine, hashish, or hashish oil into the human body, such as:
(A) Pipes of any material, with or without a filter or screen, permanent filters, attachments, heads or containers, hashish heads or punctured metal bowls, home-made or other pipes, hypodermic needle wrappings, batteries.
(B) Water, chamber, electric, carburetor, air-driven or ice pipes, or chillers.
(C) Carburetion tubes and devices.
(D) Smoking and carburetion masks.
(E) Items used to hold burning material, such as marihuana cigarettes or joints, which have become too small or too short to be held in the hand, known as “roach clips.”
(F) Miniature cocaine spoons and cocaine bottles, flasks or vials.
(G) “Chillums”, a device of Hindu origin, generally made of baked clay, used for smoking marihuana or hashish.
(H) “Bongs.”
(I) Paper used to wrap pipe tobacco, known as bamboo or tissue paper.
(b) Criteria. — In determining whether a device, item or utensil constitutes drug paraphernalia the court, or any other competent authority, may take into consideration the following, in addition to all other relevant factors:
(1) Statements from the owner or person in control of the item concerning its use.
(2) Prior convictions, if any, of the owner or the person in control of the item, under any federal or commonwealth law concerning controlled substances.
(3) Time and space proximity or relation to the item in regard to a violation of this chapter.
(4) Proximity of the item to controlled substances.
(5) The existence of any trace of a controlled substance in the item.
(6) Direct or circumstantial evidence of the intent of the owner or person in control of the item, of handing the same to persons that he/she knows or could reasonably know, have the intent to use the item to facilitate a violation of this chapter.
(7) Instructions, oral or written, concerning the use of the item in question.
(8) Descriptive materials accompanying the item in question which explain or depict its use.
(9) National or local advertising concerning the use of the item in question.
(10) The manner in which the item is displayed for sale.
(11) Whether the owner or person in control of the item is a legitimate purveyor of like or related merchandise to the community, such as but not limited to a bonafide distributor, representative, agent or dealer of tobacco products.
(12) The existence and scope of legitimate uses of the item in the community.
(13) Expert testimony concerning the use of the items in question.
The fact that the owner or person in control of the item is not found to be guilty of violating the provisions of this chapter, shall not preclude judgment for a violation of this section when is it found that the utensil, object or device constitutes “drug paraphernalia” as this term is defined in this subsection.
(c) Prohibited acts; penalties. —
(1) It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly, and with criminal intent, manufacture, distribute, sell, dispense, deliver, transport, conceal, or possess with the intent of distributing, selling, disposing, delivering, transporting or concealing drug paraphernalia, as this term is defined in subsection (a) of this section, in order to plant, propagate, grow, harvest, manufacture, compound, convert, produce, process, prepare, test, analyze, pack, repack, refill, store, keep, contain, conceal, inject, ingest, inhale, or otherwise introduce a controlled substance into the human body in violation of this chapter.
Any person who violates the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to pay a fine not greater than thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) or to imprisonment for a fixed term of three (3) years. Should there be aggravating circumstances, the fine shall not exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000); or the term of imprisonment, shall not exceed a maximum of five (5) years. Should there be extenuating circumstances, the fine shall not be greater than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000); or the term of imprisonment, a maximum of two (2) years.
(2) It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly and with criminal intent, use or possess with the intention of using drug paraphernalia to plant, propagate, grow, harvest, manufacture, compound, convert, produce, process, prepare, test, analyze, pack, repack, refill, store, keep, contain, conceal, inject, ingest, inhale, or otherwise introduce into the human body a controlled substance in violation of this chapter. Any person who violates the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not greater than three thousand dollars ($3,000) or to imprisonment for a fixed term of three (3) years. Should there be aggravating circumstances, the fine shall not be greater than five thousand dollars ($5,000); the term of imprisonment, not to exceed a maximum of five (5) years. Should there be extenuating circumstances, the fine shall not be greater than two thousand dollars ($2,000); the term of imprisonment, not to exceed a maximum of two (2) years.
(3) It shall be unlawful for any person to place a commercial advertisement in a newspaper, magazine, brochure, flyer, catalogue or other publication knowingly, intentionally, or under circumstances in which he/she should reasonably know that the intent of such commercial advertisement is in part or as a whole, to promote the purchase or sale of devices or items designed or destined for use as drug paraphernalia.
Any person who violates the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a fixed fine of ten thousand dollars ($10,000). Should there be aggravating circumstances, the fixed fine established herein may be increased to a maximum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000); should there be extenuating circumstances, said fine may be reduced to a minimum of five thousand dollars ($5,000).
History —June 23, 1971, No. 4, p. 526, added as § 412 on Sept. 3, 1997, No. 110, § 1; July 23, 2007, No. 73, § 1.