INDIANAPOLIS (WOWO): A U-S Supreme Court ruling could spell trouble for Indiana‘s attempt to stamp out bath salts. 

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled a Virginia man can‘t be convicted of dealing bath salts unless prosecutors prove he either knew the specific compound he was dealing, or knew it was illegal.

 Indianapolis Senator Jim Merritt says that reading of a federal law doesn‘t bode well for the Indiana law which seeks to keep up with ever-changing chemical formulas for the drug by letting the Board of Pharmacy add compounds to the banned list on short notice. He calls the ruling “reprehensible.” 

The Indiana Supreme Court is already scheduled to hear arguments next month on the state law. Two divided panels of the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in January it‘s too hard for citizens to know whether they‘re doing something illegal, because the law requires them to cross-reference three separate lists of banned drugs. 

If the law is thrown out, Merritt says he‘ll try again next year, possibly by adding synthetic drugs to the same banned drug list which includes marijuana.