CHAPTER 31

An Act to amend and reenact § 54-499, as amended, of the Code of
Virginia, and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding thereto a
section numbered 54-499.1, relating to what narcotic drugs shall be

exempt from the application of the Uniform Narcotic Drug ta 1
H 174

Approved February 12, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
|. That § 54-499, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
‘eenacted, and that the Code of Virginia be amended by adding thereto a
ection numbered 54-499.1, as follows:

§ 54-499. Except as otherwise in this article specifically provided,
his 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 - salts, or (c) not more than one grain of codeine * or of any of * zs
sa

(2) Prescribing, administering, dispensing, or selling at retail of
liniments, ointments, and other preparations, that are susceptible of
external use only and that contain narcotic drugs in such combinations as
prevent their being readily extracted from such liniments, ointments, or
preparations, excc pt that this article shall apply to all liniments, ointments,
and other prepurations, that contain coca leaves in any quantity or
combination.

The exemptions authorized by this section shall be subject to the fol-
lowing 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, dispensed, 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 of any of * its salts.

The medicinal preparation, or the liniment, ointment, or other
preparation susceptible of external use only, prescribed, administered, dis-
pensed, or sold, shall contain, in addition to the narcotic drug in it, some
drug or drugs conferring upon it medicinal qualities other than those pos-
sessed 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 quan-
tity 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
provisions 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 rural communi-
ties and towns.

§ 54-499.1. (a) The State Board of Pharmacy may by regulation
exempt from the application of this article, after due notice and oppor-
tunity for hearing, and to such extent as is consistent with the publie
welfare, such pharmaceutical preparations found by the Board:

(1) to possess no addiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability
sufficient to warrant imposition of all of the requirements of this article;
an

(2) not to permit recovery of a narcotic drug having such an addic-
tion-forming or addiction-sustaining liability, with such relative technical
simplicity and degree of yield as to create a risk of wmproper use.

(b) In exercising the authority set forth in paragraph (a) hereof,
the Board may, by regulation, exempt from the application of this Act,
such pharmaceutical preparations as have been determined or may in the
future be determined to be free of those properties as set forth in para-
graphs (a) (1) and (2) hereof by the regulations promulgated by the
United States Commissioner of Narcotics or other federal law.
(c) If it shall be subsequently determined by the Board, after due
notice and opportunity for hearing, that any pharmaceutical preparatior
exempted from the provisions of this article by regulation hereunder does
possess uddiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability, or permits re-
covery of a narcotic drug having such addiction-forming or addiction-
sustaining liability, as set forth in paragraphs (a) (1) and (2) hereof, the
Board shall, by regulation, revoke the exemption previously granted.