Nowadays, the drug situation is becoming increasingly severe. The continuous emergence of new drugs and more hidden ways of drug transport have brought new challenges to drug detection. The traditional drug detection method has some problems, such as complicated sample pretreatment process, expensive detecting equipment, difficulty to carry,and so on, which cannot meet the needs of on-site rapid detection. With the advantages of fast detection speed, no sample pretreatment, and small equipment size, spectral detection technology is gradually becoming an important technical means in drug detection. Recently, based on the progress of research on spectral detection technology, the application of several spectral detection techniques in drug detection has been reviewed. For heroin, methamphetamine, and other common solid drugs, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction technology with high penetration, visualization, and other advantages can achieve the characterization of paper, wood, rubber, and other common hidden drugs, suitable for rapid screening of drugs in public safety detection. Aiming to detect drug components in drug solutions and body fluids of drug users (urine, saliva, blood, etc.), this paper reviews the latest progress in infrared spectroscopy detection technology and surface-enhanced Raman scattering technology. Due to its highly specific molecular fingerprint, surface-enhanced Raman scattering technology has become a research hotspot in liquid drug identification and detection. Its advantages include being immune to aqueous solution. The method is expected to be used for portable rapid detection of liquid opioid drugs. Because of the abuse of gaseous drugs such as nitrous oxide, a variety of trace gas detection methods based on spectral detection technology are summarized in this paper. Because of the abuse of gaseous drugs such as nitrous oxide, this paper summarizes a variety of trace gas detection methods based on spectral detection technology. It reviews the progress of exhaled nitrous oxide detection using a quantum cascade laser. This technology has a good potential for application in the field of gaseous drug detection.