The present work aims to review all the papers published so far, focused on the determination of drugs of abuse in oral fluid. This fluid provides a simpler, faster and more controllable sampling in comparison with the other biological fluids such as blood or urine. Actually, the main goal of the researchers is to lower the limit of detection (LOD) to detect quantities of drugs smaller than the cut-off limits established by law for drug controls. Advances in Raman, Infrared (IR) andNuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy applications are here discussed. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) has been shown as the most sensitive technique for the detection of illicit drugs in oral fluid. The use of IR spectroscopy for determining drugs of abuse in oral fluid is growing although the LODs obtained until now do not yet satisfy the necessities in the forensic field. Finally, NMR spectroscopy has been seldom used to determine drugs in oral fluid. Another future trend seems to be related with the use of portable instrumentation, which would permit to perform in-situ analysis. This last application seems to be particularly promising to perform roadside drug tests and to identify overdose drugs in patients in emergency conditions.

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