The Supreme Court unanimously overturned a man’s conviction for selling bath salts because prosecutors couldn’t prove he knew the substance was similar to illegal drugs.
“Bath salts” are actually synthetic drugs that are marketed to appear like regular bath salts used to perfume water in a bath, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The drug emerged in 2009 and can create a high similar to that of illegal drugs ecstasy, cocaine and methamphetamines.
Stephen McFadden was charged with selling “bath salts,” which aren’t considered a controlled substance by the federal government. However, a federal law called the Analogue Act allows a court to charge someone who is peddling a substance that is similar to such controlled substances.
McFadden argued in his initial trial that he didn’t know bath salts were similar to illegal drugs, and sought an instruction to the jury that found they couldn’t find him guilty unless it found he knew the bath salts were similar.
The judge instead told the jury they only needed to find that McFadden knowingly distributed a substance with similar effects as illegal drugs on the central nervous system and that he knew people would use it. McFadden was promptly convicted.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed the jury instruction, but the Supreme Court vacated that ruling and remanded the case back to the lower court.
The court found that the jury instructions didn’t fully convey the “mental state” required by the Analogue Act, according to the justices’ opinion.
“The government contends that any error in the jury instructions was harmless because no rational jury could have concluded that McFadden was unaware that the substances he was distributing were controlled,” the opinion reads.
However, the Fourth Circuit didn’t discuss that issue when hearing the case. Therefore, the case was sent back to determine whether the error was actually harmless.
Chief Justice John Roberts concurred with the ruling, but noted in a separate opinion that a defendant needs to know more than the identity of a substance. He needs to know that the substance is regulated as a controlled substance by the federal government.
“A pop quiz for any reader who doubts the point: Two drugs — dextromethorphan and hydrocodone — are both used as cough suppressants,” Roberts said. “They are also both used as recreational drugs. Which one is a controlled substance?”
