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. 

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. 

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.