Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 11415. Section 11415.
This article shall be known and may be cited as the Hertzberg-Alarcon California Prevention of Terrorism Act.
ARTICLE 4.6. The Hertzberg-Alarcon California Prevention of Terrorism Act [11415. - 11419.]
Cal. Penal Code - PEN 4.6.
in effectCal. Penal Code - PEN § 11416. Section 11416.
The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the threat of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction, including, but not limited to, chemical, biological, nuclear, or radiological agents, is a significant public safety concern. The Legislature also recognizes that terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction could result in an intentional disaster placing residents of California in great peril. The Legislature also finds it necessary to sanction the possession, manufacture, use, or threatened use of chemical, biological, nuclear, or radiological weapons, as well as the intentional use or threatened use of industrial or commercial chemicals as weapons against persons or animals.
Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 11417. Section 11417.
(a)
For the purposes of this article, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1)
“Weapon of mass destruction” includes chemical warfare agents, weaponized biological or biologic warfare agents, restricted biological agents, nuclear agents, radiological agents, or the intentional release of industrial agents as a weapon, or an aircraft, vessel, or vehicle, as described in Section 34500 of the Vehicle Code, which is used as a destructive weapon.
(2)
“Chemical Warfare Agents” includes, but is not limited to, the following weaponized agents, or any analog of these agents:
(A)
Nerve agents, including Tabun (GA), Sarin (GB), Soman (GD), GF, and VX.
(B)
Choking agents, including Phosgene (CG) and Diphosgene (DP).
(C)
Blood agents, including Hydrogen Cyanide (AC), Cyanogen Chloride (CK), and Arsine (SA).
(D)
Blister agents, including mustards (H, HD [sulfur mustard], HN-1, HN-2, HN-3 [nitrogen mustard]), arsenicals, such as Lewisite (L), urticants, such as CX; and incapacitating agents, such as BZ.
(3)
“Weaponized biological or biologic warfare agents” include weaponized pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, rickettsia, yeasts, fungi, or genetically engineered pathogens, toxins, vectors, and endogenous biological regulators (EBRs).
(4)
“Nuclear or radiological agents” includes any improvised nuclear device (IND) which is any explosive device designed to cause a nuclear yield; any radiological dispersal device (RDD) which is any explosive device utilized to spread radioactive material; or a simple radiological dispersal device (SRDD) which is any act or container designed to release radiological material as a weapon without an explosion.
(5)
“Vector” means a living organism or a molecule, including a recombinant molecule, or a biological product that may be engineered as a result of biotechnology, that is capable of carrying a biological agent or toxin to a host.
(6)
“Weaponization” is the deliberate processing, preparation, packaging, or synthesis of any substance for use as a weapon or munition. “Weaponized agents” are those agents or substances prepared for dissemination through any explosive, thermal, pneumatic, or mechanical means.
(7)
For purposes of this section, “used as a destructive weapon” means to use with the intent of causing widespread great bodily injury or death by causing a fire or explosion or the release of a chemical, biological, or radioactive agent.
(b)
The intentional release of a dangerous chemical or hazardous material generally utilized in an industrial or commercial process shall be considered use of a weapon of mass destruction when a person knowingly utilizes those agents with the intent to cause harm and the use places persons or animals at risk of serious injury, illness, or death, or endangers the environment.
(c)
The lawful use of chemicals for legitimate mineral extraction, industrial, agricultural, or commercial purposes is not proscribed by this article.
(d)
No university, research institution, private company, individual, or hospital engaged in scientific or public health research and, as required, registered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pursuant to Part 113 (commencing with Section 113.1) of Subchapter E of Chapter 1 of Title 9 or pursuant to Part 72 (commencing with Section 72.1) of Subchapter E of Chapter 1 of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor provisions, shall be subject to this article.
Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 11418. Section 11418.
(a)
(1)
Any person, without lawful authority, who possesses, develops, manufactures, produces, transfers, acquires, or retains any weapon of mass destruction, shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for 4, 8, or 12 years.
(2)
Any person who commits a violation of paragraph (1) and who has been previously convicted of Section 11411, 11412, 11413, 11418, 11418.1, 11418.5, 11419, 11460, 18715, 18725, or 18740 shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for 5, 10, or 15 years.
(b)
(1)
Any person who uses or directly employs against another person a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread, disabling illness or injury in human beings shall be punished by imprisonment in the state
prison for life.
(2)
Any person who uses or directly employs against another person a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread great bodily injury or death and causes the death of any human being shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole. Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent punishment instead under Section 190.2.
(3)
Any person who uses a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread damage to or disruption of the food supply or “source of drinking water” as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 25249.11 of the Health and Safety Code shall be punished by imprisonment
in the state prison for 5, 8, or 12 years and by a fine of not more than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).
(4)
Any person who maliciously uses against animals, crops, or seed and seed stock, a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread damage to or substantial diminution in the value of stock animals or crops, including seeds used for crops or product of the crops, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 4, 8, or 12 years and by a fine of not more than one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).
(c)
Any person who uses a weapon of mass destruction in a form that may cause widespread and significant damage to public natural resources,
including coastal waterways and beaches, public parkland, surface waters, ground water, and wildlife, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for three, four, or six years.
(d)
(1)
Any person who uses recombinant technology or any other biological advance to create new pathogens or more virulent forms of existing pathogens for use in any crime described in subdivision (b) shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 4, 8, or 12 years and by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).
(2)
Any person who uses recombinant technology or any other biological advance to create new pathogens or more virulent forms of existing pathogens for use in any crime described in subdivision (c) shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for three, six, or nine years and by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).
(e)
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent punishment instead pursuant to any other provision of law
that imposes a greater or more severe punishment.
Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 11418.1. Section 11418.1.
Any person who gives, mails, sends, or causes to be sent any false or facsimile of a weapon of mass destruction to another person, or places, causes to be placed, or possesses any false or facsimile of a weapon of mass destruction, with the intent to cause another person to fear for his or her own safety, or for the personal safety of others, is guilty of a misdemeanor. If the person’s conduct causes another person to be placed in sustained fear, the person shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year or in the state prison for 16 months, or two or three years and by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000). For purposes of this section, “sustained fear” has the same meaning as in Section 11418.5.
Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 11418.5. Section 11418.5.
(a)
Any person who knowingly threatens to use a weapon of mass destruction, with the specific intent that the statement as defined in Section 225 of the Evidence Code or a statement made by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety, or for his or her immediate family’s safety shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year or in the state prison for 3, 4, or 6 years, and by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).
(b)
For the purposes of this section, “sustained fear” can be established by, but is not limited to, conduct such as evacuation of any building by any occupant, evacuation of any school by any employee or student, evacuation of any home by any resident or occupant, any isolation, quarantine, or decontamination effort.
(c)
The fact that the person who allegedly violated this section did not actually possess a biological agent, toxin, or chemical weapon does not constitute a defense to the crime specified in this section.
(d)
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent punishment instead pursuant to any other provision of law that imposes a greater or more severe punishment.
Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 11419. Section 11419.
(a)
Any person or entity possessing any of the restricted biological agents enumerated in subdivision (b) shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for 4, 8, or 12 years, and by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).
(b)
For the purposes of this section, “restricted biological agents” means the following:
(1)
Viruses: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, eastern equine encephalitis virus, ebola viruses, equine morbilli virus, lassa fever virus, marburg virus, Rift Valley fever virus, South African hemorrhagic fever viruses (Junin, Machupo, Sabia,
Flexal, Guanarito), tick-borne encephalitis complex viruses, variola major virus (smallpox virus), Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, viruses causing hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, yellow fever virus.
(2)
Bacteria: bacillus anthracis (commonly known as anthrax), brucella abortus, brucella melitensis, brucella suis, burkholderia (pseudomonas) mallei, burkholderia (pseudomonas) pseudomallei, clostridium botulinum, francisella tularensis, yersinia pestis (commonly known as plague).
(3)
Rickettsiae: coxiella burnetii, rickettsia prowazekii, rickettsia rickettsii.
(4)
Fungi: coccidioides immitis.
(5)
Toxins: abrin, aflatoxins, botulinum toxins, clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin, conotoxins, diacetoxyscirpenol, ricin, saxitoxin, shigatoxin,
staphylococcal enterotoxins, tabtoxin, tetrodotoxin, T-2 toxin.
(6)
Any other microorganism, virus, infectious substance, or biological product that has the same characteristics as, or is substantially similar to, the substances prohibited in this section.
(c)
(1)
This section shall not apply to any physician, veterinarian, pharmacist, or licensed medical practitioner authorized to dispense a prescription under Section 11026 of the Health and Safety Code, or universities, research institutions, or pharmaceutical corporations, or any person possessing the agents pursuant to a lawful prescription issued by a person defined in Section 11026 of the Health and Safety Code, if the person possesses vaccine strains of the viral agents Junin virus strain #1, Rift Valley fever virus strain MP-12, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus strain TC-83 and yellow fever virus
strain 17-D; any vaccine strain described in Section 78.1 of Subpart A of Part 78 of Subchapter C of Chapter 1 of Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor provisions, and any toxin for medical use, inactivated for use as vaccines, or toxin preparation for biomedical research use at a median lethal dose for vertebrates of more than 100 ng/kg, as well as any national standard toxin required for biologic potency testing as described in Part 113 (commencing with Section 113.1) of Subchapter E of Chapter 1 of Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor provisions.
(2)
For the purposes of this section, no person shall be deemed to be in possession of an agent if the person is naturally exposed to, or innocently infected or contaminated with, the agent.
(d)
Any peace officer who encounters any of the restricted agents mentioned above shall immediately
notify and consult with a local public health officer to ensure proper consideration of any public health risk.
(e)
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent punishment instead pursuant to any other provision of law that imposes a greater or more severe punishment.
Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026