Federal bath salts trial goes to jury
The federal drug trial of an Upper Peninsula man has gone to the jury. Scott Will is facing a five-count indictment involving the synthetic drug commonly called ‘bath salts’.
Two officers from the Marquette Police Department testified today about a disturbance complaint they once responded to at the Ramada Inn. One of the officers said Scott Will was at the hotel and identified more than a hundred containers of a substance called Revitalize as belonging to himself.
The officer testified that he asked Will, ‘is that like White Rush?’, a brand name for fake bath salts. The officer said Will told him ‘yes, it’s pretty much the same thing; people go crazy over it’.
Other government witnesses included a special agent from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a Michigan State Police forensic scientist. A Drug Enforcement Administration chemist testified for the defense.
Closing arguments took place this afternoon. Assistant U.S. Attorneys claimed that Will targeted drug addicts by giving them fake bath salts for free at first, then selling to them after getting them hooked.
Defense counsel Mark Dobias argued that the government witnesses might only have been testifying as part of plea–bargains for reduced sentences. He claimed that DEA drug testing does not have to be peer–reviewed for scientific validity.
Dobias also said the addicts who testified admitted to taking quite a few different substances in addition to the fake bath salts, such as morphine, Ambien and others. In his view, they couldn’t testify about the effects of the bath salts alone.
Cameras are not permitted inside federal courtrooms.