Photo by Samer Farha

In the D.C. Council this morning, Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) introduced legislation that would make bath salts illegal in the District. But as our friends at We Love D.C. note, these aren’t the type of bath salts that you might find at a Bed Bath & Beyond that we’re talking about.

Bath salts are synthetic stimulants that can do pretty terrible things to your body, but have so far managed to skirt federal and local laws and be sold under otherwise innocuous-sounding names.

In September, the DEA used emergency powers to ban them, and the House recently voted to add them to the list of Schedule 1 drugs — basically, the stuff that’s no good for you.

Cheh’s measure is similar to one introduced by Council Chairman Kwame Brown in November to criminalize so-called synthetic marijuana products, which have also been banned by the DEA. If both measures pass, they would simply harmonize local and federal drug laws.