Iran, Saudi Arabia Lead the World in Use of Death Penalty for Drug Offenses

Nearly half of all exe­cu­tions to date in 2025 in Iran (244) and Saudi Arabia (50) have been for drug-relat­ed crimes, track­ing close­ly pat­terns doc­u­ment­ed by Harm Reduction International (HRI) for 2024. 

According to HRI’s new report, The Death Penalty for Drug Offenses: Global Overview 2024, the use of the death penal­ty for drug-relat­ed crimes reached ​“cri­sis lev­els” in 2024. At least 615 peo­ple were known to be exe­cut­ed on drug-relat­ed charges world­wide, 607 of which took place in Iran (at least 485) and Saudi Arabia (122). This marks a 32% increase from 2023 and the ​“dead­liest year on record” since 2015, accord­ing to HRI. Drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions account­ed for about 40% of all known exe­cu­tions world­wide in 2024 and are on track to reach almost half of all exe­cu­tions in 2025.

Thirty-four coun­tries retain the death penal­ty for drug-relat­ed offens­es, even though non­vi­o­lent drug offens­es do not meet the inter­na­tion­al legal thresh­old lim­it­ing the death penal­ty to the ​“most seri­ous” crimes. 

In 2024, drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions were con­firmed in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. HRI assumes they also occurred in the high appli­ca­tion states of China, North Korea, and Vietnam, which heav­i­ly cen­sor death penal­ty-relat­ed infor­ma­tion. 

While almost four in five known exe­cu­tions for drug offense occurred in Iran in 2024, and while Singapore con­tin­ues to tout its long held puni­tive approach to address­ing drug-relat­ed crimes, Saudi Arabia saw a sig­nif­i­cant surge in drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions in 2024 (122) after only two such exe­cu­tions in 2023 ¾ a 6000% increase year-over-year. In a notable coun­tertrend, Vietnam is con­sid­er­ing leg­is­la­tion to elim­i­nate the death penal­ty for eight of 18 offens­es, includ­ing ille­gal drug transport. 

There is no strong evi­dence that the death penal­ty is effec­tive in cur­tail­ing illic­it drug pro­duc­tion, trade and use, nor that it makes soci­ety safer. Rather… it caus­es extreme suf­fer­ing, often equiv­a­lent to tor­ture and oth­er cru­el, inhu­man and degrad­ing treat­ment, to the con­vict­ed per­son but also to their fam­i­ly, all the way from the sen­tenc­ing up until the execution.

— Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions 

Iran Executes At Least 244 for Drug Crimes in 2025, Nearly 50% of Total 

According to Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), there have been at least 511 exe­cu­tions car­ried out in Iran in the first five months of 2025 — almost twice as many as dur­ing the same peri­od in 2024. Of the known exe­cu­tions car­ried out this year, near­ly 50%, or 244 peo­ple, were exe­cut­ed for drug-relat­ed offences. In May alone, 68 of the 152 peo­ple known to be exe­cut­ed in Iran (45%) were con­vict­ed of drug-relat­ed offens­es. In 2024, accord­ing to HRI, Iran account­ed for the major­i­ty of drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions world­wide (at least 485). This rep­re­sents 52% of all exe­cu­tions car­ried out in Iran in 2024, not sig­nif­i­cant­ly dif­fer­ent from 2023. 

Drug-Crimes Account for More than 50% of all Executions in Saudi Arabia in 2025 

According to an AFP tal­ly, at least 100 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed in Saudi Arabia from January to May 2025, 59 of whom were exe­cut­ed for drug-relat­ed offences. On June 10, 2025, UN experts called on the nation to halt the immi­nent exe­cu­tion of 26 Egyptian nation­als sen­tenced to death for drug-relat­ed offens­es. According to court doc­u­ments, some of these pris­on­ers have been denied legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion and were con­vict­ed based on coerced con­fes­sions. Morris Tidball-Binz, the Special Rapporteur on extra­ju­di­cial, sum­ma­ry or arbi­trary exe­cu­tions empha­sized that car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions for drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions is ​“incom­pat­i­ble” with the nation’s ​“legal oblig­a­tions under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” and high­light­ed that it ​“fails to meet the thresh­old of the most serious crimes.” 

Last year, Saudi Arabia car­ried out a record-break­ing num­ber of exe­cu­tions, includ­ing a dra­mat­ic 6000% increase in drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions, accord­ing to HRI. There were 122 peo­ple exe­cut­ed on drug-relat­ed charges in 2024 com­pared to just two exe­cut­ed for those charges in 2023. Foreign nation­als com­prised three-quar­ters of those exe­cut­ed for drug-relat­ed offens­es. Among those exe­cut­ed were 15 peo­ple on cannabis-relat­ed charges, which HRI sug­gests could sig­nal an expan­sion in the state’s use of the death penal­ty. Due to a lack of trans­paren­cy, the num­ber of new death sen­tences imposed and per­sons on death row for drug charges were not reported. 

Singapore Announces New Regional Coalition at the Asia-Pacific Forum Against Drugs 

At the Asia-Pacific Forum Against Drugs (APFAD), con­vened in mid-May, the Singaporean Home Affairs and Law Minister Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam announced the cre­ation of a new region­al coali­tion, the Asia-Pacific Confederation Against Drugs (APCD). According to Shanmugam, APCD will bring togeth­er non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Hong Kong with the goals of cre­at­ing ​“drug-free soci­eties” and ​“speak[ing] up against the ris­ing tide of lib­er­al poli­cies and mis­in­for­ma­tion on drugs” at international venues.

Because we treat drug traf­fick­ers as peo­ple who ply death. They want to make mon­ey out of the death and mis­ery of oth­ers. And so we make our laws very clear. We tell peo­ple you traf­fic in drugs, you face the death penal­ty, and we impose it.

— Singaporean Home Affairs and Law Minister Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam 

In his remarks, Minister Shanmugam explained that Singapore pri­mar­i­ly uses the death penal­ty for drug crimes rather than homi­cide. Singapore has some of the strictest drug-relat­ed laws in the world, man­dat­ing the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of traf­fick­ing more than 15 grams of diamor­phine (hero­in), 250 grams of metham­phet­a­mine, or 500 grams of cannabis. Recently, a 58-year-old man, Mesnawi Dahri nar­row­ly escaped the death penal­ty after he was found in pos­ses­sion of 14.99 grams of pure hero­in and was instead sen­tenced to 31 years impris­on­ment. 

From August to November 2024 alone, Singapore exe­cut­ed eight peo­ple for drug traf­fick­ing, up from the five drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions in 2023, accord­ing to HRI. The gov­ern­ment has increas­ing­ly cen­sored anti-death penal­ty activists, result­ing in one such orga­ni­za­tion, the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) announc­ing in January 2025 that it would cease oper­a­tions for a two-year period. 

Despite a Moratorium on Executions, Indonesia Continues to Impose New Death Sentences for Drug Offenses 

Although Indonesia has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 2016, the coun­try con­tin­ues to impose death sen­tences for drug-relat­ed crimes and is clas­si­fied by HRI as a ​‘high appli­ca­tion state.’ According to HRI, Indonesia imposed at least 73 death sen­tences for drug offens­es in 2024, the low­est fig­ure since 2020. Indonesia has the sec­ond high­est num­ber of per­sons on death row for drug crimes, reach­ing at least 360 peo­ple at the end of 2024. 

Recently, sev­er­al for­eign nation­als, includ­ing American, Australian, British, Indian, and Kazakh nation­als, have been arrest­ed in Indonesia for drug crimes car­ry­ing the poten­tial penal­ty of death. On May 23, 2025, American nation­al William Wallace Molyneaux was arrest­ed in Bali for car­ry­ing pack­ages con­tain­ing 99 amphet­a­mine pills and was charged with dis­tri­b­u­tion, which is a death-eli­gi­ble offense.

On May 27, 2025, British nation­al Thomas Parker was sen­tenced to 10 months in prison after a death-eli­gi­ble charge for col­lect­ing a pack­age of over a kilo­gram of MDMA, or Ecstacy, was dropped.

According to AFP, nar­cotics agents in Bali arrest­ed five for­eign nation­als on drug charges in April and May of this year. On June 3, 2025, three British nation­als were charged for smug­gling over a kilo­gram, or about two pounds, of cocaine into Bali and now face the death penal­ty, as well. 

Vietnam Considers Legislation to Eliminate the Death Penalty for Illegal Drug Transport 

Currently, the Vietnamese National Assembly is review­ing a gov­ern­ment pro­pos­al to revise the Penal Code to elim­i­nate the death penal­ty for eight of the 18 death-eli­gi­ble offens­es, includ­ing for ille­gal drug trans­port, as well as embez­zle­ment, bribery, pro­duc­tion and sale of coun­ter­feit med­i­cine, and cer­tain nation­al-secu­ri­ty offens­es. According to the cur­rent draft of the leg­is­la­tion, these for­mer­ly death-eli­gi­ble offens­es will now car­ry life sen­tences with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The new penal code revi­sion would also pro­hib­it exe­cu­tion of pris­on­ers with ter­mi­nal can­cer or AIDS. 

The pro­pos­al has stirred up debate amongst leg­is­la­tors, with some call­ing for the reten­tion of the death penal­ty for drug-relat­ed offens­es. Proponents of the death penal­ty for drug traf­fick­ing empha­sized the sever­i­ty of the crime, need for deter­rence, and cau­tioned that lenien­cy might con­vey apa­thy towards vic­tims’ suf­fer­ing. However, Deputy Nguyen Thi Viet Nga high­light­ed the fact that those who trans­port drugs are often from low­er socioe­co­nom­ic back­grounds and this revi­sion would dis­tin­guish those who are trans­port­ing these drugs from the orga­nized man­u­fac­tur­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion oper­a­tions, all of which would con­tin­ue to face poten­tial death sentences. 

HRI iden­ti­fied at least 113 death sen­tences imposed for drug-relat­ed offens­es in Vietnam in 2024, account­ing for the major­i­ty of new death sen­tences imposed in the nation. 

Due to a lack of trans­paren­cy from the gov­ern­ment, HRI could not iden­ti­fy min­i­mum exe­cu­tion num­bers for drug-relat­ed offens­es or num­ber of death row pris­on­ers con­vict­ed of drug-related charges. 

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, Nina Motazedi, June 18, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde