University of Virginia Library

Expert Asks
State To Ease
Drug Laws

By Rob Pritchard
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Testifying on behalf of a bill
concerned with Virginia's drug control
act currently before the House of
Delegates, associate professor of
psychiatry at the University, John
Buckman, has voiced the opinion that the
State's present drug laws are too strict.

House Bill No. 271 under the study of
the House General Laws Committee,
would, if passed, lower the penalty for
simple possession of hallucinogens below
the classification of heroin to a
misdemeanor.

Major opposition to this drug reform
bill is headed in part by Robert F. Horan,
Jr., Commonwealth's Attorney from
Fairfax.

Mr. Horan feels that by lowering
possession to a misdemeanor, it would be
much harder for narcotics agents to seek
out and arrest pushers.

According to Dr. Buckman, however, the
prime danger of our present drug laws is the
"almost guaranteed exposure to heroin, as well
as other learned crime, in prison."

A conviction for possession of more than 25
grains of marijuana (5 cigarettes) carries in
Virginia a mandatory jail sentence of 20 years,
as the laws stand now.

Dr. Buckman, in his dealings with the House
General Laws Committee, feels that the
Virginia Legislature will "probably agree to
lessen the penalty of softer hallucinogens to a
misdemeanor, but that is only a start."

He continued by saying that drug education
is needed to insure better understanding of the
drug problem.