In any complaint, information, or indictment, and in any action or proceeding brought for the enforcement of any provision of this article or of the Drug Control Act (§ 54.1-3400 et seq.), it shall not be necessary to negative any exception, excuse, proviso, or exemption contained in this article or in the Drug Control Act, and the burden of proof of any such exception, excuse, proviso, or exemption shall be upon the defendant.
Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-263
Unnecessary to negative exception, etc.; burden of proof of exception, etc
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Jordan v. Commonwealth of Virginia (1980)
Most recently applied in Commonwealth v. Wilson (April 1996)
Code 1950, § 54-524.108; 1970, c. 650; 1975, cc. 14, 15.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.