21 U.S.C. § 962
Section 962 · Second or subsequent offenses
Amended 4 times on record
Applied in 24 court decisions — leading case United States v. Raynor (1991)
Most recently applied in United States v. Reyes-Valdivia (October 2023)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Any person convicted of any offense under this subchapter is, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense, punishable by a term of imprisonment twice that otherwise authorized, by twice the fine otherwise authorized, or by both. If the conviction is for an offense punishable under section 960(b) of this title, and if it is the offender's second or subsequent offense, the court shall impose, in addition to any term of imprisonment and fine, twice the term of supervised release otherwise authorized.
For purposes of this section, a person shall be considered convicted of a second or subsequent offense if, prior to the commission of such offense, one or more prior convictions of such person for a felony drug offense have become final.
Section 851 of this title shall apply with respect to any proceeding to sentence a person under this section.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1994—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “one or more prior convictions of such person for a felony drug offense have become final” for “one or more prior convictions of him for a felony under any provision of this subchapter or subchapter I of this chapter or other law of a State, the United States, or a foreign country relating to narcotic drugs, marihuana, or depressant or stimulant drugs, have become final”.
1986—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 99–570, §1005(c), amended Pub. L. 98–473, §225. See 1984 Amendment note below.
Pub. L. 99–570, §1004(a), substituted “term of supervised release” for “special parole term”.
1984—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 98–473, §225(b), which directed amendment of this section effective Nov. 1, 1987 (see section 235(a)(1) of Pub. L. 98–473 set out as an Effective Date note under section 3551 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure) was omitted in the general amendment of section 225 of Pub. L. 98–473 by Pub. L. 99–570, §1005(c).
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 98–473, §505, inserted references to laws of a State or of a foreign country.
Effective Date of 1986 Amendment
Amendment by section 1004(a) of Pub. L. 99–570 effective on date of taking effect of section 3583 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure (Nov. 1, 1987), see section 1004(b) of Pub. L. 99–570 set out as a note under section 841 of this title.