Common hydrophobic basic and hydrophilic basic drugs are separated by mixed-mode chromatography with greater selectivity and resolution than traditional reversed-phase column. Drugs are retained by combination of reversed-phase and cation-exchange mechanisms. Retention time is controlled by amount of acetonitrile, buffer concentration and buffer pH. Available detection techniques are based on buffer selection and include UV, Evaporative Light-Scattering Detector (ELSD), Corona (CAD), LC/MS, etc. This HPLC method can be adopted as general approach for analysis of drugs and pharmaceuticals.