Recently, drug abuse has become a serious social problem world wide. In Japan, methamphetamine (MP) is the
most popular drug of abuse. In addition to MP, the use of 4,5-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), called
ecstacy, is rapidly increasing, especially among young people. The development of simple and convenient analytical
methods for the analysis of these drugs of abuse is necessary for the prediction of and protection from human health
risks. Many useful methods have been developed for qualification and quantification of drugs of abuse. Among
these, gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography with MS
(HPLC-MS or LC-MS) or fluorescence (HPLC-FL) detection are widely used. As highly sensitive methods, precolumn
or postcolumn derivatization methods are commonly utilized in HPLC. This review focuses on HPLC methods used
for the practical analysis of drugs of abuse, mainly for amphetamine derivatives and MDMAs in biologic samples
such as urine, blood, and hair