JUDY WOODRUFF:

And we turn to a story we posted online earlier today.

We have done extensive reporting on a set of drugs commonly known as bath salts. These street drugs have been on the rise in recent years and pose serious problems for law enforcement. They are packaged to look like common household products with names like Lady Bubbles or White Dove.

But the chemicals in them and the high they produce can be devastating for lives and communities. Their effects can be stronger and longer-lasting than other drugs like amphetamines and cocaine.

Researchers are trying to understand how they work and how the chemistry behind them continues to change.

Louis De Felice is one of those researchers studying this new class of substances at Virginia Commonwealth University. And he joins me now from Richmond.

Thank you for being with us.

And let me just start by saying, when people hear the term bath salts, maybe they think of Epsom salts, which you would buy at a pharmacy, in a drugstore, but this is very different. Tell us what they are.