A new procedure for the rapid analysis of four major opium alkaloids is described using ion-pair, reversedphase high performance liquid chromatography and recently developed radial compression column technology. The solvents were aqueous 10mM potassium perchlorate with 5.0mM n-butylamine (pH 3.0) and pure acetonitrile. A gradient was run for five minutes from 10% to 70% acetonitrile and held at that level for two minutes. Flow rates were 3 ml/min. Two column packing materials were compared with this solvent system: standard C-18 packing and a fully-end-capped C-18 material. Results obtained with the fully-end-capped C-18 packing and the two solvent ion-pair gradient showed elution times under six minutes, with greater sensitivity (<50 nanograms) than previous systems.