Following the unanimous New Jersey State Senate vote criminalizing six chemicals used to create a methamphetamine-style drug known as "bath salts," residents of the town where the alleged homicide of Warren resident Pamela Schmidt took place earlier this year say they are relieved.
“I think that’s great,” Cranford resident Carmela Williams said. “I don’t want kids to get high on certain drugs, I’ve got grandchildren. ... Drugs have so many terrible effects, they’ll drag you down.”
The powerful salts can cause severe psychotic episodes, reports NJ.com, and came to consciousness earlier this year when Rutgers senior and Warren resident Schmidt was found dead in the basement of her Cranford boyfriend's home. Her alleged killer, William Parisio, may have been under the influence of the bath salts at the time of the incident. Authorities "have not confirmed whether Parisio was using bath salts when Schmidt was slain," according to NJ.com.
Parisio’s mother Diane, who could not be reached for comment, told the Courier News in March that she did not intend to assist in her son's legal defense and that he could never come back to the family house because of his decision to take bath salts.
