Analysis of the Legislator’s Criminal Policy in (the Appended) Article 45 of the Addendum to the Anti-Narcotics (Narcoterrorism) Law

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rom the very beginning, in the Iranian penal system, a single criminal policy has not been adopted in the field of anti-narcotics (Narcoterrorism, combating drug) crimes that at times, the legislature has dealt severely with this issue by enacting strict laws, and at times has even tried to decriminalize some former crimes. In the last article of the amendment to the Anti-Narcotics Law enacted on 1396/07/12 (2018/10/04), the legislator has tried to reduce the scope of the death penalty for perpetrators of drug crimes, a policy that is in line with international pressures and in contrast to the idea of severity of punishment in order to achieve the goal of rationalizing the criminal response system to drugs. In this article, while analyzing the principles of this change of approach, the dimensions of Iran’s legislative criminal policy against drug delinquency are examined. The fact is that although the legislature sought to reduce the punishment of perpetrators of drug crimes, changes in practice have led to an increase in the severity and intensification of the criminal approach to this group of criminals. In fact, the assessment of this study indicates that the criminal policy adopted by the legislator, contrary to the first notion of the single subject bill, although in some cases it seems reducing, in practice has sometimes led to strictness and severity of criminal action.