What is this whole thing about people using bath salts to get high?

My husband told me he heard some people we knew back in our home town were eating or smoke bath salts to act like cocaine or acid....is that really all people need to do these days to get high? Go to bath and body works and buy a jug of bath salt? Or is it something else? Is it a drug they're just calling bath salt to sound less malicious? One of the reasons my husband joined be military and we moved was to get away from the types of people who would do this. I guess what I'm basically asking for is a break down on what on earth this new substance is and how they're doing it. I had the same reaction when I heard of jankum....what is our youth and some adults coming to these days?