Entries tagged with “Drug offenses”
Apr 23, 2026
Singapore Executes Man for Cannabis Importation Amid Rising Drug-Related Executions
On April 16, 2026, Singapore executed 46-year-old Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj for importing 1,009 grams of cannabis, an offense that carries a mandatory death sentence under the country’s Misuse of Drugs Act, which imposes capital punishment for importing more than 500 grams. His execution marks the eighth carried out for drug-related offenses in 2026, already exceeding half of the fifteen drug-related executions recorded in all of 2025. Although the court determined that Mr. Yacob Bamadhaj’s…
Apr 15, 2026
New Harm Reduction International Report: Drug-Related Executions Worldwide Reached Record High in 2025 Amid Intensification of “War on Drugs” Rhetoric
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…
Issues
Foreign Nationals
,Women
,Mar 23, 2022
Report: Fewer Nations Using the Death Penalty for Drug Offenses, But Executions and Secrecy Are Up in Those that Do
Fewer countries are using the death penalty for drug offenses, but according to a new global report, executions increased in those that did and took place in proceedings characterized by authoritarianism and secrecy. In its eleventh annual report on The Death Penalty for Drug Offenses: Global Overview 2021, released mid-March 2022, the international drug monitor Harm Reduction International (HRI) found that eight “high application” nations contributed to an increase in known death sentences…
Issues
Women
,Oct 07, 2021
Report: More Women Serving Extreme Sentences in the United States
The number of women serving extreme sentences in the United States has increased sharply in the last decade, a September 2021 report by a collaborative of criminal law reform organizations has found. The report, In The Extreme: Women Serving Life Without Parole and Death Sentences in the United States, released September 22 by The Sentencing Project, the National Black Women’s Justice Institute, and the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, determined that the number of women serving…
Issues
Apr 16, 2021
Global Death Penalty Report: Executions for Drug Offenses Down 75% Worldwide
Executions for drug offenses plummeted worldwide during 2020, according to a new report by the global drug-policy monitor Harm Reduction International (HRI). Three countries — China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran — carried out 30 confirmed executions for non-violent drug crimes over the course of the year, the group reported in its annual analysis, The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2020. The total, the April 7, 2021 report said, was the lowest since HRI began reporting on…
Research
Jun 12, 2018
Pew Poll Finds Uptick in Death Penalty Support, Though Still Near Historic Lows
Just under 54% of Americans say they support the death penalty and 39% say they are opposed, according to the results of a Pew Research poll released June 11, 2018. The poll — administered between April 25 and May 1, one month after President Trump called for the death penalty for drug trafficking — reflects a five-point increase in support for capital punishment, up from the record-low 49% recorded in Pew’s 2016 poll. The results, which are in line with the 55% support level found by the Gallup…
Issues
Federal Death Penalty
,Mar 20, 2018
Public Health Experts Criticize Trump’s Proposal to Seek Death Penalty for Drug Traffickers
Saying “the ultimate penalty has to be the death penalty,” President Donald Trump (pictured) announced on March 19 that he will direct the Department of Justice to seek the death penalty against drug traffickers. The proposal, included as part of the administration’s plan to address an opioid epidemic that has resulted in as many as 64,000 overdose deaths in 2016 alone, drew immediate criticism from public-health and criminal-justice experts. “We can’t execute our way out of this epidemic,”…
Issues
Jun 09, 2010
NEW RESOURCES: The Death Penalty for Drug Offences — Global Overview 2010
The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) recently published a report on the use of the death penalty for drug crimes around the world. The report distinguishes between countries that have legislation allowing a death sentence for drug offenses and those that actually apply it in practice. According to the report, 32 jurisdictions retain the death penalty for drug offenses (out of the 58 countries that have the death penalty for any offense), at least 12 of which were known to have…