Progress on the Electrochemical Sensing of Illicit Drugs

Illicit drugs are harmful substances, threatening both health and safety of societies in all corners of the world. Several policies have been developed over time to deal with this illicit drug problem, including supply reduction and harm reduction policies. Both policies require on-site detection tools to succeed, i.e. sensors that can identify illicit drugs in samples at the point-of-care. Electrochemical sensors are highly suited for this task, due to their short analysis times, low cost, high accuracy, portability and orthogonality with current technologies. In this chapter, we evaluate the latest trend in electrochemical sensing of illicit drugs, with a focus on detection of illicit drugs in seizures and body fluids. Furthermore, we will also provide an outlook on the potential of electrochemistry in wearable sensors for this purpose.