University of Virginia Library

Buckman Supported
Lower Penalties

By Fred Heblich
and Myles Tronic
Cavalier Daily Staff Writers

Dr. John Buckman, an associate
professor of psychiatry at the
University Hospital and an expert
on drugs, was among those doctors
consulted in the making of the New
Drug Control Act of Virginia. Dr.
Buckman has also testified before
the House General Laws Committee,
the Senate General Laws
Committee, and the Senate Courts
of Justice Committee. The following
is taken from an interview with
Dr. Buckman concerning the New
Drug Control Act.

"My original plea was that they
should make possession of everything
except narcotics, that is
opium derivatives, a misdemeanor."
The resulting consequences are far
from what Dr. Buckman had
wanted, for possessions of all the
hallucinogenics except for marijuana
are felonies. "The danger of a
felony is that it remains on one's
record."

Dr. Buckman stressed that
opiates carry implicit dangers of
use, i.e. addiction. In the case of
heroin, "five years is generally the
time from the day of addiction to
death. All narcotics are physically
addictive and drugs that are injected
are more likely to cause
addiction than ones that are swallowed
or smoked. Injection is more
immediate to the nervous system.
Of course, personality has much to
do with it also."

Continuing on the dangers and
implications of heroin, Dr. Buckman
said that there are at least a
quarter of a million heroin addicts
in the United States and there may
be as much as one million. The
average addict needs $50-$100