Iran: 2024 fines, contested death threshold and 7 history entries

2017-11-14

Article 5 of the Anti-Narcotics Law grades keeping, hiding or carrying bhang, hashish and the other drugs on its lighter list by weight.[@anl] Up to 50 g brings a fine of up to 3165 million rials and up to 50 lashes, with no prison; 50 to 500 g a fine of 5100 to 15300 million rials and 10 to 74 lashes; 500 g to 5 kg two to five years, a fine of 15 to 60264 million to 1 billion rials and 40 to 74 lashes; and 5 to 20 kg five to ten years, a fine of 60 to 200330 million to 1 billion rials and 50 to 74 lashes.[@anl] The older text adds confiscation on a second conviction a … d adds a per-kilogram fine; above 100 kg it formerly imposed life imprisonment.[@anl] The June 2024 cabinet decree raised these cash fines roughly fiftyfold; the figures here are the current amounts written into the 1997 text.[@anlfines24] Since 2017, a former death sentence becomes first-degree prison up to thirty years witho … separate over-50-kg cannabis condition expressly concerns Article 4 offences.[@reform2017]

anl, reform2017, penal19, fines24

upto 50 g · treatment criminal · term Keeping or carrying · fine 3000000165000000 · caning 1, 50 · note Fine and lashes; no prison, over 50 g · upto 500 g · treatment criminal · term Keeping or carrying · fine min 5000000100000000 · fine 15000000300000000 · caning 10, 74 · note No prison on a first offence, over 500 g · upto 5 kg · treatment criminal · term Keeping or carrying · prison min 2 years · prison 5 years · fine min 15000000264000000 · fine 600000001000000000 · caning 40, 74, over 5 kg · upto 20 kg · treatment criminal · term Keeping or carrying · prison min 5 years · prison 10 years · fine min 60000000330000000 · fine 2000000001000000000 · caning 50, 74 · note Repeat offences have additional sanctions, subject to Article 45 c … circumstance must be proved; quantity alone is not stated as an Article 5 capital trigger

Article 2 punishes growing poppy, coca or cannabis only when it is done to produce narcotics.[@anl] The crop is destroyed and the fine rises with each conviction: 10330 to 100825 million rials the first time, 50 to 500330 million to 3.5 billion and 30 to 70 lashes the second, 100330 million to 13.3 billion, 1 to 70 lashes and two to five years the third, and death the fourth.[@anl] A la … s is not a crime, and since October 2026 industrial hemp may be grown under permit.[@hemp]

label First cultivation offence · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · fine min 10000000330000000 · fine 100000000825000000, label Second cultivation offence · repeat 2 · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · fine min 50000000330000000 · fine 5000000003500000000 · caning 30, 70, label Third cultivation offence · repeat 3 · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · prison min 2 years · prison 5 years · fine min 100000000330000000 · fine 10000000003300000000 · caning 1, 70, label Fourth cultivation offence · repeat 4 · treatment criminal · term Cultivation · death true

The law is enforced most heavily at the borders and against traffickers. In the Iranian ye … olice attention concentrated on heroin, methamphetamine and alcohol.[@cgh] Drug executions, however, rose from 503 in 2024 to 795 in 2025, 48.5% of all executions recorded that year.[@ecpm] The law still provides for flogging and death, so the score stays at the floor.[@anl]

Article 4 covers importing, exporting, producing, distributing, dealing in or selling bhang, hashish and the other drugs on its list.[@anl] Up to 50 g brings a fine of up to 4200 million rials and up to 50 lashes; 50 to 500 g a fine of 4200 to 50500 million rials, 20 to 74 lashes and up to three years if the court thinks prison necessary; 500 g to 5 kg a fine of 50 to 200500 million to 2 billion rials, 50 to 74 lashes and three to fifteen years.[@anl] The older text prescribed death a … ffence for giving cannabis away; distribution falls under the same Article 4 ladder.[@anl]

upto 50 g · treatment criminal · term Distribution or sale · fine 4000000200000000 · caning 1, 50 · note Fine and lashes; no prison, over 50 g · upto 500 g · treatment criminal · term Distribution or sale · fine min 4000000200000000 · fine 50000000500000000 · caning 20, 74 · prison 3 years · note Prison only if the court considers it necessary, over 500 g · upto 5 kg · treatment criminal · term Distribution or sale · prison min 3 years · prison 15 years · fine min 50000000500000000 · fine 2000000002000000000 · caning 50, 74, label Distribution or sale over 5–50 kg, without Article 45 aggravation … cing, using children or specified prior convictions can qualify below the weight threshold

Using cannabis is a crime for anyone who is not an addict: Article 19 imposes 20 to 74 lashes and a fine of 150 to 5230 million rials for the drugs on the Article 4 list, which includes bhang and hashish.[@anl] Addicts also commit an offence, but Article 15 protects them from prosecution while they are in treatment, and Article 16 setsprovides compulsory treatment for one to three months, extendable by three months, rather than a fine of 1 to 8 million rials and up to 30 lashes.[@anl] In private, use is often overlooked; Ghiabi's fieldwork describes toleration in th … t 1.3% among men and 0.2% among women, rising to 4.9% among young men in 2016–2020.[@plos]

label Use by a non-addict · treatment criminal · term Use · fine min 100000050000000 · fine 5000000230000000 · caning 20, 74, label Use by an addict · treatment criminal · term Use · fine min 1000000 · fine 8000000 · caning 1, 30 · note Prosecution suspended while the person is in treatment

The older drug law prescribed death above 5 kg for Article 4 cannabis offences and for spe … ving death from eight drug offences, but no text or timetable was published.[@ecpm] The threshold is contested: article 4 says more than 5 kg, the note to article 4 says more than 20 kg applies “under any circumstances”, and article 45 uses 50 kg. A 2019 judicial meeting in Golestan treated quantity alone as sufficient; no binding national ruling resolves the conflict.[@anl,reform2017,meeting19]

anl, ecpm, reform2017, meeting19, ecpm

Adults have no legal way to buy cannabis.[@anl] Possession up to 50 g is punished with a f … put gol at about 50,000 tuman a gram at the time of the fieldwork, roughly 0.80 US dollars; the figure is dated and not a current price.[@cgh] The state counts 2.8 to 4.4 million regular users of illicit drugs, with opiates still the main drug.[@incsr]

Iran — Cabinet decree 56261/ت62298هـ raising drug fines (19 June 2024) Asbahi — 2019 Golestan judicial meeting on article 45 14 unchanged