TRIAL OF TWO WHO SOLD DATE-RAPE DRUG OPENS (Defendants: We didn’t break any laws)

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Miskiewicz said Scott Ansaldi, 26, of 28 Garden Place, Merrick, and Rodney Dean Gates, 31, of Norcross, Ga., had illegally sold the date-rape drug GHB and its precursor chemical GBL over an Internet site based in Long Island City called invigorating.com.  Miskiewicz said they sold the chemicals under the name Verve as an aphrodisiac for $99.99 for a 32-ounce bottle between mid-1999 and August 2000.  Attorneys for the two replied at the opening of their trial in First District Court in Central Islip that their clients were businessmen who were caught up in laws that had changed and had no intention to commit a crime.  GHB was only declared a controlled substance in March of 2000 under the federal law known officially as the Date-Rape Prevention Act.  GBL can be sold, but only for legally specified uses, such as a solvent to degrease machinery.

(New York)