A senior official with the interior ministry complained...

A senior official with the interior ministry complained that only 233 drug traffickers were hanged in the entire country in the calendar year 1378 (March 1999-2000). "Some 15,869 drug traffickers deserved death, but only 1,735 were meted capital punishment. The death sentence against 400 convicts was upheld, but finally only 233 were sent to the gallows," Deputy interior minister for security affairs Gholam Hoseyn Bolandian told provincial anti-drug officials in western Iran.
Iranian law imposes the death penalty for possession of more than 30 grams of heroin or five kg (11 pounds) of opium.