A federal judge in Nebraska on Thursday sentenced a Lawrence man to serve more than seven years in federal prison for possessing a form of a synthetic drug often called “bath salts.”

According to federal court records, Judge Richard G. Kopf in Lincoln, Neb., ordered Steven Sullivan to serve the 92-month sentence after he was convicted by a jury in December.

According to media coverage of the trial, Sullivan was stopped for speeding in southeast Nebraska on Oct. 27, 2010, and officers found the drug and another called K2 in his car. The “bath salts” were not yet on a law enforcement list of controlled substances, but he was convicted for possessing a “structural analogue” of the drug with the intent to distribute it. Federal prosecutors had argued the substance was similar to the chemical structure of an illegal substance and that it has a similar effect on the human body.

Sullivan can appeal the verdict and sentence.