No person may knowingly possess a controlled drug or substance unless the substance was obtained directly or pursuant to a valid prescription or order from a practitioner, while acting in the course of the practitioner's professional practice or except as otherwise authorized by chapter 34-20B. A charge for unauthorized possession of controlled substance when absorbed into the human body as set forth in subdivision 22-42-1(1) shall only be charged under the provisions of § 22-42-5.1. A violation of this section for a substance in Schedules I or II is a Class 5 felony. A violation of this section for a substance in Schedule III and IV is a Class 6 felony.
S.D. Codified Laws § 22-42-5
Unauthorized possession of controlled drug or substance as felony
Applied in 87 court decisions — leading case State v. Hess (2004)
Most recently applied in State v. Bradshaw (August 2025)
Source: SL 1970, ch 229, § 10 (c); SL 1971, ch 225, § 3; SDCL Supp, § 39-17-95; SL 1976, ch 158, § 42-5; SL 1985, ch 186; SL 1998, ch 139, § 1; SL 2013, ch 101, § 58.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. 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.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.