CHAPTER 451

An Act to amend and reenact 8§ 54-487, 54-499 and 54-516 of the Code of
Virginia, so as to include certain substances within the provisions of
the “Uniform Narcotic Drug Act’, and to increase penalties for viola-
tion of the Act; and to repeal Article 7 of Title 54 of the Code, contain-
ing §§ 54-457 to 54-460, inclusive.

(H 132]

Approved April 1, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 54-487, 54-499 and 54-516 of the Code of Virginia be amended
and reenacted as follows:

§ 54-487. Definitions.—The following words and phrases, as used in
this article, shall have the following meanings, unless the context other-
wise requires:

(1) “Person” includes any corporation, association, partnership or
one or more individuals.

(2) “Physician” means a person authorized by law to practice medi-
cine in this State and any other person authorized by law to treat sick
and injured human beings in this State and to use narcotic drugs in con-
nection with such treatment.

(3) “Dentist” means a person authorized by law to practice dentistry
in this State.

(4) “Veterinarian” means a person authorized by law to practice
veterinary medicine in this State.

(5) “Manufacturer” means a person who by compounding, mixing,
cultivating, growing, or other process, produces or prepares narcotic drugs,
but does not include an apothecary who compounds narcotic drugs to be
sold or dispensed on prescriptions.

(6) “Wholesaler” means a person who supplies narcotic drugs that
he himself has not produced nor prepared, on official written orders, but
not on prescriptions.

(7) “Apothecary” means a licensed pharmacist as defined by the
laws of this State and, where the context so requires, the owner of a store
or other place of business where narcotic drugs are compounded or dis-
pensed by a licensed pharmacist; but nothing in this article shall be con-
strued as conferring on a person who is not registered nor licensed as a
pharmacist any authority, right or privilege, that is not granted to him
by the pharmacy laws of this State.

(8) “Hospital” means an institution for the care and treatment of
the sick and injured, approved by the State Board of Pharmacy as proper
to be entrusted with the custody of narcotic drugs, and the professional
use of narcotic drugs under the direction of a physician, dentist, or veter-
inarian. ,

(9) “Laboratory” means a laboratory approved by the State Board
of Pharmacy as proper to be entrusted with the custody of narcotic drugs
and the use of narcotic drugs for scientific and medical purposes and for
purposes of instruction.
(10) “Sale” includes barter, exchange, or offer therefor, and each
such transaction made by any person, whether as principal, proprietor,
agent, servant, or employee.

(11) “Coca leaves” includes cocaine and any compound, manufacture,
salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of coca leaves, except derivatives
of coca leaves which do not contain cocaine, ecgonine, or substances from
which cocaine or ecgonine may be synthesized or made.

(12) “Opium” includes morphine, codeine, and heroin, and any
compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of opium.

(13) ‘“‘Isonipecaine’” means the substance identified chemically as

1-menthyl-4-phenylpiperidine-4-carboxylic acid ethyl ester; otherwise
known as demerol, or any salt thereof by whatever trade name identified.

(14) “Narcotic drugs” means coca leaves and opium, cannabis and
isonipecaine and every substance not chemically distinguishable from
them.
(15) ‘Federal narcotic laws” means the laws of the United States
relating to opium, coca leaves, and other narcotic drugs.

(16) “Official written order’ means an order written on a form pro-
vided for that purpose by the United States Commissioner of Narcotics,
under any laws of the United States making provision therefor, if such
order forms are authorized and required by Federal law, and if no such
order form is provided then on an official form provided for that purpose
by the State Board of Pharmacy. —

(17) “Dispense” includes distribute, leave with, give away, dispose
of, or deliver.

(18) “Registry number” means the number assigned to each person
registered under the Federal narcotic laws.

(19) “Cannabis” means and includes all parts of the plant Cannabis
Sativa L., whether growing or not; the seeds thereof; the resin extracted
from any part of such plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt,
derivative, mixture, or preparation of such plant, its seeds, or resin; but
shall not include the mature stalks of such plant, fiber produced from such
stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of such plant, any other compound,
manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of such mature
stalks (except the resin extracted therefrom), fiber, oil, or cake, or the
sterilized seed of such plant which is incapable of germination.

(20) “Opiate” includes all synthetic drugs having addiction-forming
or addiction-sustaining properties similar to morphine and so proclaimed
by the President of the United States under the provisions of the Federal
narcotic law.

§ 54-499. Except as otherwise in this Article specifically provided,
this Article shall not apply to the following cases:

(1) Prescribing, administering, dispensing, or selling at retail of
any medicinal preparation that contains in one fluid ounce, or ‘if a solid
or semi-solid preparation, in one avoirdupois ounce, (a) not more than two
grains of opium, (b) not more than one-quarter of a grain of morphine
or of any of its salts, (c) not more than one grain of codeine or one-sixth
grain of dihydrocodeinone or of any of their salts, (d) not more than
one-eighth of a grain of heroin or of any of its salts.

(2) Prescribing, administering, dispensing, or selling at retail of
liniments, ointments, and other preparations, that are susceptible of ex-
ternal use only and that contain narcotic drugs in such combinations
as prevent their being readily extracted from such liniments, ointments,
or preparations, except that this Article shall apply to all liniments, oint-
ments, and other preparations, that contain coca leaves in any quantity or
combination.
The exemptions authorized by this section shall be subject to the
following conditions:

(a) No person shall prescribe, administer, dispense, or sell at retail
under the exemptions of this section, to any one person, or for the use
of any one person or animal, any preparation or preparations included
within this section, when he knows, or can by reasonable diligence
ascertain, that such prescribing, administering, dispensing, or selling will
provide the person to whom or for whose use, or the owner of the animal
for the use of which such preparation is prescribed, administered, dis-
pensed, or sold, within any forty-eight consecutive hours, with more than
four grains of opium, or more than one-half grain of morphine or of
any of its salts, or more than five grains of codeine or two-thirds of a
grain of dihydrocodeinone or of any of their salts, or more than one-
quarter of a grain of heroin or of any of its salts.

(b) The medicinal preparation, or the liniment, ointment, or other
preparation susceptible of external use only, prescribed, administered,
dispensed, or sold, shall contain, in addition to the narcotic drug in it,
some drug or drugs conferring upon it medicinal qualities other than
those possessed by the narcotic drug alone. Such preparation shall be
prescribed, administered, dispensed and sold in good faith as a medicine,
and not for the purpose of evading the provisions of this Article.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the kind and
quantity of any narcotic drug that may be prescribed, administered,
dispensed, or sold, to any person or for the use of any person or animal,
when it is prescribed, administered, dispensed, or sold, in compliance with
the general provision of this Article.

No person other than a licensed pharmacist regularly employed in
a registered pharmacy shall sell or offer for sale to consumers any
exempted narcotic drug; provided, however, paregoric in original packages
and such other medicines as the Board of Pharmacy may designate may
be sold by merchants and retail dealers at their places of business in 1 rural
communities and towns.

§ 54-516. Penalties——Any person violating any provision of this
Article shall upon conviction be punished, for the first offense, by a fine of
not * more than one thousand dollars * * * and be imprisoned in the
penitentiary not less than three nor more than five years. For a second
violation of this Article, or where in case of a first conviction of violation
of this Article, the defendant shall previously have been convicted of a
violation of any law of the United States, or of this or any other State,
Territory, or District, relating to the sale or use or possession of narcotic
drugs or marijuana, and such violation would have been punishable in this
State if the offending act had been committed in this State, the defendant
shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars and be imprisoned not
less than five nor more than ten years. For a third or subsequent violation
of this Article, or where the defendant shall previously have been con-
victed two or more times in the aggregate of a violation of any law of the
United States, or of this or any other State, Territory, or District, relat-
ing to the sale, use or possession of narcotic drugs or marijuana, and such
violation would have been punishable in this State if the offending act had
been committed in this State, the defendant shall be fined not more than
three thousand dollars, and be amprisoned in the penitentiary not less than
ten nor more than twenty years.

If, however, such offense shall consist of sale, barter, peddling, ex-
change, dispensing or supplying marijuana or a narcotic drug to a minor,
in violation of any provision of this Article, said offense shall be deemed a
felony, and any person found guilty thereof shall be imprisoned for a term
of not less than ten years nor more than thirty years, and shall be subject
to a fine as provided for hereinabove in this section, in the event of con-
viction, the imposition or execution of sentence shall not be suspended.
Provided, further, that if the violation of the provisions of this Article
consists of the filling by an apothecary of the prescviption of a person au-
thorized under this article to issue the same, which prescription has not
been received in writing by the apothecary prior to the filling thereof, and
such written prescription 1s in fact received by the apothecary within one
week of the time of filling the same, or if such violation consists of a re-
quest by such authorized person for the filling by an apothecary of a pre-
scription which has not been received in writing by the apothecary and
such prescription is, in fact, written at the time of such request and de-
livered to the apothecary within one week thereof, either such offense shall
constitute a misdemeanor and be punishable only by a fine not in excess of
one hundred dollars
2. Article 7 of Title 54 of the Code of Virginia, containing §§ 54-457 to
54-460, inclusive, is repealed.