A new drug has hit the streets in Canada and the federal government is taking steps to stop it.

The street drug is known as bath salts, called that because it resemblances what you put in your bath.

Methylene-dioxypyro-valerone or MDPV is the key ingredient.

The hallucinogenic can cause psychotic episodes and violent behaviour.

The drug was implicated in a grisly attack in Miami on May 26, when one man chewed the flesh off another man's face on a highway as horrified motorists looked on.

Police were unable to subdue the attacker, 31-year-old Rudy Eugene, and shot him dead.

Officers have speculated that Eugene, whose family described him as a mild-mannered individual who rarely drank or did drugs, may have taken MDPV.

The government will implement new rules to make MDPV illegal.

That means possession, trafficking, importation, exportation and production of the drug would be a criminal act.

It's already been banned in a number of US states.

Calgary police say they haven't seen any local cases, but they fear users are turning to the internet to buy it.

One online distributors sells it under the guise of being a product that helps people relax.