The Virginia State Crime Commission was created by House Joint Resolution No. 113 of the 1966 Regular Session of the General Assembly and twice continued, once by House Joint Resolution No. 48 of the 1968 Regular Session and again by House Bill No. 764 of the 1970 Regular Session. The 1970 Legislation directed the Commission to conduct specific studies in three specific areas in its continuation of study into the causes of crime and the ways and means to reduce and prevent it, as follows:

(a) The need of creating a separate State department or of establishing within an existing State department a Bureau of Drug Abuse and Narcotics.

(b) The need for the establishment of a central crime laboratory in Virginia and how such a laboratory should be equipped and function, the cost thereof and whether such laboratory should be placed in an existing State department or established as a separate department.

(c) The activities of organized crime in the State.

The Commission was further directed by that Act to report its recommendations regarding the need of creating a separate State agency for drug abuse and narcotics to the 1971 Session of the General Assembly. The purpose of this interim report is to report such recommendations.

The initial study of the need for a drug agency was conducted by a Subcommittee comprised of five Commission members--Senator James W. Davis of Monroe, Chairman; Delegate Claude W. Anderson of Buckingham; Delegate Arthur R. Giesen, Jr. of Staunton, Mr. William N. Paxton, Jr. of Richmond; and Mr. Edwin S. Solomon of Hot Springs. Colonel William R. Durrer, Chief of Police of Fairfax County, and Sheriff John F. Atwood, Sheriff of Prince George County, also served on this Subcommittee.

During this study, the Drug Abuse Subcommittee, or the full Commission, met and conferred with:

1. Several Cornmonwealth's Attorneys and Chief Law-Enforcement Officers from political subdivisions of the State which had experienced much drug abuse,

2. The Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation,

3. The Presidents or other officials of all of the 14 four-year State-supported colleges and universities in Virginia,

4. Representatives of the Attorney General's Office,

5. The Executive Director of the Governor's Council on Narcotics and Drug Abuse Control, and

6. The Superintendent and other officials of the Virginia State Police.