No, I've been busted before while I was in college, possession in most cases IS a 100 dollar fine, at least for NY state. No permanent charge. Not even on my record. It goes up if your in a school zone, if they think it's intended for sale (bagged up and your carrying a lot of cash). If you're an asshole to the cops they'd probably up the severity of the charge. But me and my friends just told the cops we understood, we were polite and gave up the bag of weed, and they left without hassling us.

It's considered a violation, it's not even a misdeamenor. I've known about 6 folks that have been busted and each of them paid 100 bucks at court and that was it. I'm just speaking from my personal experience. Maybe if I were dressed like a thug or acted like one they would've been harder, but they knew we were all just college kids having a little smoke.