Arkansas Cannabis Trafficking — Class Y Felony § 5-64-440

At 500 pounds or more, Arkansas cannabis possession or distribution becomes trafficking under Ark. Code § 5-64-440 — a Class Y felony with a sentence of 10 to 40 years or life and a fine up to $1,000,000. Felony tiers below trafficking carry stacked mandatory minimums: 3 years at 10 lbs, 5 years at 25 lbs, 6 years at 100 lbs.

Legal Disclaimer: This information reflects Arkansas cannabis law as of June 2026 and is for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice. Laws and regulations change — always verify current rules with the Arkansas Department of Health, Medical Marijuana Section or a qualified attorney. Cannabis remains illegal under federal law.

Last verified: May 2026

The Class Y Trafficking Trigger

Ark. Code § 5-64-440 makes possession of 500 pounds or more of marijuana a Class Y felony. Class Y felonies under Ark. Code § 5-4-401 carry the most severe penalties Arkansas imposes short of capital murder: a sentence of 10 to 40 years or life imprisonment, plus a fine up to $1,000,000. There is no probation, no suspended sentence, no plea-bargained reduction below 10 years.

The statute applies whether the predicate is possession, possession-with-intent-to-deliver, distribution, or manufacture. Aggregate weight controls; product form (flower, edibles, concentrate, infused beverage) does not matter for the threshold count.

The Felony Mandatory-Minimum Stack

Below the 500-lb trafficking threshold, the Arkansas weight ladder under § 5-64-419 imposes increasingly severe mandatory minimums that the sentencing judge may not suspend:

Weight	Class	Sentence (min–max)	Mandatory Minimum
10 lbs – <25 lbs	Class C felony	3–10 years	3 years
25 lbs – <100 lbs	Class B felony	5–20 years	5 years
100 lbs – <500 lbs	Class A felony	6–30 years	6 years
500 lbs or more	Class Y felony (trafficking)	10–40 years or life	10 years

Federal Trafficking on Top

Cannabis remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law (21 U.S.C. § 812). Federal trafficking under 21 U.S.C. § 841 imposes its own thresholds:

50–100 kg — up to 20 years (5-yr min if death/serious injury); $1M fine.
100–1,000 kg (or 100–1,000 plants) — 5 to 40 years; $5M fine.
1,000+ kg (or 1,000+ plants) — 10 years to life; $10M fine.

Federal interdiction units patrolling I-30, I-40, I-49, I-540, US-71, US-271, and the Mississippi River bridges routinely seize loads that cross both Arkansas and federal trafficking thresholds, particularly in cross-border movements between Missouri, Oklahoma, Colorado, and California.

Civil Asset Forfeiture

Arkansas’s civil-asset-forfeiture statute (Ark. Code § 5-64-505) authorizes seizure of cash, vehicles, and real property used in a controlled-substance offense. Federal civil-asset-forfeiture under 21 U.S.C. § 881 covers the same ground at the federal level. Arkansas State Police’s highway-interdiction units have a long, much-litigated record of stopping out-of-state vehicles — particularly those with Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, and California plates — and seizing cash without subsequent criminal charges.

Arkansas had been a notable national outlier in its low procedural barriers to forfeiture; reforms in 2019 raised the standard somewhat but did not eliminate the practice. Cross-border drivers transporting cannabis or large amounts of cash should expect that interdiction-related forfeiture remains a material risk.

The 1,000-Foot School-Zone Enhancement

For trafficking prosecuted as delivery, Ark. Code § 5-64-411 adds a 10-year sentencing enhancement for any qualifying conduct within 1,000 feet of a school, park, daycare, or housing project. On a Class Y predicate, the enhancement effectively turns a 10-year minimum into a 20-year minimum.

Why These Numbers Matter

For policy-watchers and academic readers, Arkansas’s mandatory-minimum architecture is among the South’s harshest. Mississippi’s only 10-pound trafficking trigger is a mandatory life sentence (more severe at threshold) but lighter at the lower felony tiers. Louisiana’s sentencing is tighter at the bottom and lighter at the top. Texas’s 50-pound threshold to felony is similar to Arkansas’s but different in structure.

The practical effect is that Arkansas is one of the worst states in the South to be caught with a multi-pound cannabis load. Combined with the dense interdiction infrastructure on I-30 and I-40 — the principal east-west and north-south arteries through the state — trafficking prosecutions generate the longest sentences of any drug category Arkansas charges.