Comparative study of the consequences of sentencing in drug crimes based on the quantity of drugs in the legislative system of Iran and the United States of America

According to the deterrence theory the severity of punishment in drug crimes is justified on the basis of the quantity of drugs. The reason of this issue in sentencing is related to the harm. It is presumed that more drugs have the ability to cause more harm and for this reason sever punishments are needed. This issue has adverse consequences in the appropriate response to the drug offenders. The In this research, content analysis of the statutes was used for examining the quantity problem. Findings of the research show that overemphasizing on the quantity and ignoring the culpability criterion has led to the more severe punishment of the low level drug offender in comparison to high level drug offenders. Furthermore, Drug couriers and user dealer have also affected by this criterion. It seems that the lack of scientific studies to evaluate the consequences of this issue, the lack of knowledge about the empirical findings in the other countries and strict views among criminal justice officials are the important obstacles to the right legislation in this issue.