Since 1991 Iran has executed around 5,000 drug pushers

Since 1991 Iran has executed around 5,000 drug pushers. More than 90,000 people-some 60% of the prison population-are in jail on drugs offences. Yet the number of addicts continues to rise: the country has about 2 million opium and heroin addicts. Some of President Muhammad Khatami's conservative opponents claim that "moral decay", fostered by his reformist allies, has made the epidemic worse. But the solution they propose, harsher sentencing, does not work.