The Development of a Strict Criminal Policy in Order to Legally Amend the Limatations of the Death Penalty for Drug Crimes

The development of the penal policies brought about by the legislator has not been fixed for executions and so has shifted towards the enactment of strict penal policies or their limitation. The present study investigates the changes in the scope of penal policies in Iran in regards to drug-related crimes deserving execution. This was done using the descriptive – analytical method and indicated that the lawmaker has further increased the scope of strict penal policies and their execution in the last legislative will, Article 45 of the amendment enacted in 14/10 2017, claiming the punishment for the aforementioned crime has decreased. Although the legislature has tried to limit the strict criminal policies by taking measures such as reducing the scope of crimes punishable by death by increasing the weight of drugs and converting final sentences into imprisonment and fines, it is evidenet that in practise, the severity of the penal policies has becaome much more prominenet than before. This is as a result of the deprivation of death row inmates from compassionate measures, use of ambiguous legislative terms, expansion of the role of criminal records in the death sentence, independent criminalization of criminals and standardization of some drug-related crimes.