2025 marked the high­est num­ber of drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions world­wide since Harm Reduction International (HRI) began report­ing num­bers in 2007. In its new report, The Death Penalty for Drug Offenses: Global Overview 2025, HRI explains that a ​“small but res­olute group of coun­tries” are respon­si­ble for a record 1,212 exe­cu­tions, which is like­ly an under­count due to secre­cy laws in the high appli­ca­tion nations of China, North Korea, and Vietnam pre­vent­ing dis­clo­sure of death penal­ty-relat­ed infor­ma­tion. 

From 2024 to 2025, HRI reports that drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions increased by 97%, pri­mar­i­ly dri­ven by Iran and Saudi Arabia — a con­tin­u­a­tion of the pre­vi­ous year’s trend dur­ing which these two coun­tries drove a 32% increase. Despite a lack of evi­dence sup­port­ing the effec­tive­ness of the death penal­ty as a tool for reduc­ing drug crimes, HRI says that drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions com­prised over 46% of all known exe­cu­tions glob­al­ly in 2025. HRI warns of a ​“seri­ous risk” of the death penal­ty being ​“nor­mal­ized as a tool of drug con­trol,” call­ing for ​“bold and deci­sive action” to address this ​“long-fore­warned esca­la­tion of a trend that began in 2021, one that inter­na­tion­al actors have tolerated.

“While par­tial, these fig­ures con­firm a now-estab­lished trend: puni­tive drug con­trol is a key dri­ver of use of the death penal­ty worldwide.” 

-HRI 2025 Report


According to HRI, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore all reached record highs for drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions in 2025. Iran alone account­ed for near­ly 80% of such exe­cu­tions, exe­cut­ing at least 955 peo­ple, leav­ing at least 222 chil­dren with­out a par­ent. Amidst increas­ing socio-eco­nom­ic insta­bil­i­ty and waves of protests, Iran has expe­ri­enced a rise in exe­cu­tions for all crimes since 2021. In 2025, HRI notes that 46% of all exe­cu­tions in Iran were for drug offens­es, mean­while, 67% of all exe­cu­tions in Saudi Arabia and 88% of all exe­cu­tions in Singapore were for drug offens­es. Saudi Arabia exe­cut­ed 240 peo­ple for drug-relat­ed crimes in 2025 with ana­lysts attribut­ing the increase to the Kingdom’s renewed ​“war on drugs.” This record num­ber comes five years after Saudi Arabia announced a mora­to­ri­um on drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions. In Singapore, 15 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed for drug offens­es in 2025, which includ­ed cas­es with alleged vio­la­tions of due process rights, inves­ti­ga­tion gaps, co-defen­dant tes­ti­mo­ny, and inno­cence claims, accord­ing to HRI. Of the 15 peo­ple exe­cut­ed, five were Malaysian nationals.

Globally, eth­nic minori­ties and for­eign nation­als appear to be dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed by puni­tive drug poli­cies. In 2025, HRI says that almost one in four peo­ple exe­cut­ed for drug crimes were from eth­nic minori­ties (338 total), and more than one in five peo­ple exe­cut­ed for drug crimes were for­eign nation­als (271 total). This trend is evi­dent at a coun­try lev­el, too. HRI data shows for­eign nation­als account­ed for 78% of drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions in Saudi Arabia, and eth­nic minori­ties account­ed for 35% of all drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions in Iran. ​“Many of the peo­ple exe­cut­ed share sim­i­lar sto­ries: a back­ground of pover­ty, due process flaws, and a low-lev­el posi­tion in the drug trade, mean­ing they are high­ly vis­i­ble to law enforce­ment yet eas­i­ly replace­able in the drug mar­ket,” explains HRI. 

HRI reports that the glob­al death row pop­u­la­tion ​“remained fair­ly sta­ble” from 2024 to 2025, but attrib­ut­es this to a lack of trans­paren­cy sur­round­ing death rows and new death sen­tences. The report uses Iraq to illus­trate this ​“trans­paren­cy gap.” Official sources report 40 new drug-relat­ed death sen­tences in 2025, but a state­ment from Iraq’s Ministry of Interior in November 2025 on death sen­tences imposed for drug crimes over the last three years indi­cates ​“around 100 death sen­tences” with­out a pub­lic record, accord­ing to HRI. 

HRI notes that for many coun­tries, such as Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam, drug-relat­ed death sen­tences account for all or most of their new death sen­tences. Globally, at least 331 new drug-relat­ed death sen­tences were imposed in 2025. Indonesia expe­ri­enced a sig­nif­i­cant 93% increase in new drug-relat­ed death sen­tences (143 sen­tences in 2025). Sir Lanka had 10 new drug-relat­ed death sen­tences, mark­ing the high­est num­ber in five years, and Sudan record­ed their first drug-relat­ed death sen­tence, result­ing in their reclas­si­fi­ca­tion by HRI from a ​‘sym­bol­ic appli­ca­tion’ to a ​‘low appli­ca­tion’ nation. Singapore report­ed the low­est num­ber of new drug-relat­ed death sen­tences in a decade, with only two report­ed, and Vietnam saw a 25% decrease in known new drug-relat­ed death sen­tences. Vietnam also enact­ed an amend­ment to its Criminal Code in July 2025, remov­ing the death penal­ty for eight offences, includ­ing the ille­gal trans­porta­tion of nar­cot­ic sub­stances.
 

Although non­vi­o­lent drug offens­es do not meet the inter­na­tion­al legal thresh­old lim­it­ing the death penal­ty to the ​“most seri­ous” crimes, 36 coun­tries retain the death penal­ty for drug-relat­ed offens­es in 2025, mark­ing an increase for the first time in over a decade. Two coun­tries — Algeria and the Maldives — enact­ed leg­is­la­tion impos­ing the death penal­ty for cer­tain drug offens­es in 2025.
 

Although Algeria retains the death penal­ty and has hun­dreds on death row, HRI says that the nation has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in over 30 years. In con­junc­tion with dis­cus­sions to lift its ongo­ing mora­to­ri­um, Algerian gov­ern­ment offi­cials expressed a need for tougher drug poli­cies to address a ​“per­ceived increase in drug crimes,” accord­ing to HRI. In July 2025, Law 25 – 03 was adopt­ed, increas­ing the penal­ties for drug crimes includ­ing mak­ing the death penal­ty a pos­si­bil­i­ty for cer­tain drug offens­es. Now, drug pro­duc­tion and traf­fick­ing offens­es that result in the death of one or more per­sons, threat­en pub­lic health, or are car­ried out in con­nec­tion with spe­cif­ic aggra­vat­ing fac­tors car­ry a pos­si­ble death sen­tence. Repeat offend­ers and those using spe­cif­ic vul­ner­a­ble groups, like minors, spe­cial needs per­sons, or recov­er­ing addicts, in their oper­a­tions are also at risk for the death penal­ty.
 

In July 2025, President Mohamed Muizzu of the Maldives direct­ed par­lia­ment to revise the country’s Drug Act amend­ment bill to include the death penal­ty for drug smug­gling and traf­fick­ing. Enacted on December 6, 2025, the new law out­lines a manda­to­ry death sen­tence for import­ing ille­gal drugs over a cer­tain amount. A death sen­tence can only be imposed by a unan­i­mous deci­sion of the Supreme Court and is not sub­se­quent­ly eli­gi­ble for parole, par­don, or com­mu­ta­tion. 
 

In December 2025, Kuwait also enact­ed its tough­est anti-nar­cot­ic mea­sures in decades, which expands death-eli­gi­ble drug crimes. Addressing the Kuwait Institute for Judicial Studies in December 2025, Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousef Saud Al-Sabah said the gov­ern­ment plans to speed up exe­cu­tions to address a ​“back­log” of death row cas­es. ​“No one will remain in prison for more than six months wait­ing on hope,” he said. According to HRI, Kuwait was among the four oth­er coun­tries with con­firmed drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions in 2025, with the exe­cu­tion of two Iranian nation­als. Given the new law and harsh rhetoric, HRI rais­es con­cern for the rough­ly 30 peo­ple on death row in Kuwait, 40% of whom were sen­tenced for drug offenses.

“The long-stand­ing fail­ure of the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to hold gov­ern­ments account­able for this inhu­mane, ille­gal and inef­fec­tive prac­tice, com­bined with pop­ulist rhetorics that frame drugs as an exis­ten­tial secu­ri­ty threat, had grave con­se­quences in 2025.”

-HRI 2025 Report


Framing the record year not as a ​“sud­den cri­sis” but as the ​“esca­la­tion of a trend” begin­ning in 2021, HRI’s report high­lights the inten­si­fi­ca­tion of the ​“war on drugs” rhetoric glob­al­ly in 2025. The report calls spe­cif­ic atten­tion to the United States’ ​“extra­ju­di­cial killing” of 14 peo­ple in inter­na­tion­al waters in September 2025. The killings drew wide­spread inter­na­tion­al crit­i­cism from UN experts who urged the ​“United States to retreat from its law­less ​‘war on nar­co-ter­ror­ism’.” HRI calls for the ​“urgent and crit­i­cal recon­sid­er­a­tion of the cur­rent puni­tive approach, and the pro­found human, legal and social harms it caus­es” in order for the world to adopt ​“more effec­tive and humane drug poli­cies” and ​“move towards glob­al abo­li­tion of the death penalty.” 

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Citation Guide
Sources

The Death Penalty for Drug Offenses: Global Overview 2025, Harm Reduction International, Harm Reduction International, March 2026; Agence France-Presse in Dubai, Executions in Saudi Arabia hit high­est num­ber on record in 2025, The Guardian, January 1, 2026; Passant Hisham, Drugs, cit­i­zen­ship forgery ​‘the gravest threats fac­ing Kuwait’, Kuwait Times, December 11, 2025; Press Release, US war on ​“nar­co-ter­ror­ists” vio­lates the right to life, warn UN experts after dead­ly ves­sel strike, United Nations, September 16, 2025;