After Uruguay courageously legalised the use of cannabis under a new drug policy, could Iran be the next country to make it legal? From the outside, the image of Iran as retrograde and inherently conservative hardly fits with the reality of a more dynamic domestic political debate within. But drug policy is one of the areas of debate in which the Islamic Republic has produced some interesting, yet paradoxical, policies.

Iran has a conspicuous drug addiction problem—which officially accounts for more than 2m addicts (though unofficial figures put this as high as 5-6m). Drug traffickers risk harsh punishments that include the death penalty. Yet Iran also has very progressive policies towards drug addiction, which include distribution of clean needles to injecting drug users, methadone substitution programmes (also in prisons) and a vast system of addiction treatment.

Iran remains a country that is hard to explain. However, a new approach of drug control could build on what is already a progressive model, but one that actually stems the level of drug abuse in the country. The country is currently paying twice the price: of militarised anti-narcotics strategies and increasing medical problems related to drug use.

The council of expediency

During a recent conference on addiction held in Tehran, Saeed Sefatian, a prominent Iranian official and head of the working group on drug demand reduction in the Council for the Discernment of the Expediency of the State (also known as the Expediency Council), illustrated what could become a potential alternative to Iran’s current drug policy—including a move which that could include measures towards legalisation of cannabis and opium.

The Expediency Council is an institutional body that was established in 1987 by then Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and its main objectives are to identify major political challenges, institutional strategies and long-term policies of the country. The council acts as the advisory body to Iran’s highest political authorities.