remained unnoticed in the public domain until it caught the attention of young people attending raves during early 1990s. Currently, 2C-B is the psychedelic drug most prevalent in Europe after LSD [5]. The circulation of drugs in unregulated markets increases the risks for people that use drugs and the challenges for forensic toxicologists, epidemiologists, or emergency doctors [6]. Thus, the development of tools that allow efficient monitoring and accurate identification and that support medical intervention related to psychedelic drugs is considered of utmost relevance [5; 6; 7].  
The development of analytical methods for specific analytes with a high degree of selectivity and sensitivity is often a challenging task for chemists and toxicologists due to the increased complexity of sample matrices. Molecular imprinting technology has gained prominence and it has been extensively utilized for important target compounds as antibodies receptors in diverse complex matrices. Inspired by antibody and enzyme mechanisms, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) were developed as a molecular recognition technology with a wide range of potential applications. MIP have been successfully applied in drug delivery [8], solid-phase extraction [9], catalysis [10], chromatographic or membrane-based separations [11; 12], chemical sensing [13; 14], and forensic chemistry [15].  
A typical molecular imprinting process involves the formation of a pre-organized complex of a chosen template molecule (target molecule) and a functional monomer that either covalently links or non-covalently interacts with the template molecule followed by a crosslinking polymerization in the presence of an initiator and an appropriate cross-linker [16]. Non-covalent binding is much easier to achieve and is applicable to a wide range of targets, moreover, target binding and release are relatively fast [17]. One of the most significant and widely used non-covalent imprinting systems is the combination of methacrylic acid (MAA) as a functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as a crosslinking agent in which MAA has the ability to form a hydrogen bond between varieties of template molecules [18]. Theori studies pointed to MAA with chloroform as a porogen, as good options for the preparation of MIP targeting of phenethylamine-based drugs [19; 20]. Polymerization is usually trigged by conventional heating, microwave (MW), photo-polymerization, and ultrasound [12]. Microwave has emerged as a green strategy in MIP synthesis, dramatically decreasing the time required in the polymerization process when compared to conventional heating [21]. Although the mechanism is still not well understood, the benefits of this clean technology are very clear, promoting homogeneous and rapid heat transfer through the reaction mixture, leading to higher reaction rates, short-term polymerization processes, and high yields [21]. After polymerization, the template molecule is removed, leaving behind binding cavities complementary in size, shape, and functional group assembly to the template molecule [16].  
Herein we report the preparation of MIP targeting 2C-B through MW-assisted polymerization. Further optimization, such as best molar ratio template-monomer, optimal pH, or most efficient extraction solution composition was also explored. The capacity for selectively extracting the target compound from mixtures of new psychoactive substances, including \(N\)-benzylphenethylamine derivatives, was also evaluated. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time the preparation and study of MIPs targeting 2C-B is reported. This work is expected to expand the strategies available in biological  
Figure 1: Chemical structures of 4-Bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine (2C-B) and mescaline.  
sample preparation and/or psychedelic drug analysis, considering its toxicological and forensic application.