Advances in the analysis of legal and illegal drugs in the aquatic environment

•Overview of analytical methodologies and sample preparation.•Trend is to develop and to apply automatic techniques and multi-class methods.•High-resolution, full-scan analysis and UHPLC have increased in popularity.•Future development should extend analysis to dozens of multiclass compounds.•Future development should also keep acceptable recoveries and sensitivity.

We review the current methods developed for the analysis of legal and illegal drugs (LIDs) and their metabolites in environmental samples. We discuss the advantages and the pitfalls of multi-class methods with emphasis on new strategies for sample preparation and recent technical developments. Finally, we present the applicability of these methods to the analysis of LIDs in protected environmental areas.