The figures have been released by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) which has launched an information campaign aimed at preventing others from meeting a similar fate.
The "Know Before You Go" campaign says the zero-tolerance approach of some countries often results in strict penalties which can come as a shock to British travellers who, if arrested, can be detained for months without trial in distressing prison conditions.
Consular affairs minister Mark Simmonds told Sky News: "There's an assumption that what might be a cautionary offence in the UK will be a cautionary offence in other countries.
"People continue to be astonished at some of the penalties handed down for certain crimes overseas.
"In some countries possessing small amounts of marijuana can lead to decades in prison."
While the FCO helps Britons detained overseas, it has warned it cannot interfere in the process of law, and its message to anyone tempted to smuggle drugs is the risk will always be greater than the reward.
The campaign follows the high-profile cases of Michaella Connolly and Melissa Reid, who are awaiting trial in Peru accused of cocaine smuggling.
They have admitted the charges but prosecutors have rejected their pleas and they face prison terms of up to 15 years.
Briton Terry Daniels is helping to spread the word, having once been jailed in Spain for drug smuggling.
"When I first saw the girls (in Peru), one of them looked very similar to me at that age and it absolutely shocked me," she said.
While working in the bars and clubs of Tenerife in 1997, Terry went on holiday with her boss, only to be arrested upon their return when cocaine was found in his suitcase.
"He was a drug smuggler and in their eyes we were both guilty. Whether I knew or not, they didn't care," she said.
Lindsay Sandiford faces the death penalty in Bali for drug smuggling
She spent the following 14 years, some of it in a mixed prison, fighting and waiting for a pardon from the King of Spain.
She said: "Nobody's invincible, everybody who goes abroad thinks they're wearing some cloak like nobody can see what they're doing. Don't take any risks that you wouldn't take in this country. Drugs are bad enough here, let alone abroad."
Convicted drug smugglers can face the death sentence in a total of 33 countries worldwide, including Thailand and Indonesia.
British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford, 57, is currently on death row in a prison on Bali having been convicted of smuggling cocaine.
In the United Arab Emirates, possessing - or even testing positive for - the smallest amount of illegal drugs carries a minimum four-year sentence.
The charity Prisoners Abroad is currently supporting 80 Britons between the ages of 18 and 30 held in foreign countries for drug offences. Two thirds of these are still awaiting trial, while others are serving sentences from a year to nearly 39 years.
Chief executive Pauline Crowe said: "In many countries, men and women find themselves without access to food, clean water and the most basic of medical care.
"We urge people to consider the unsanitary conditions, overcrowded cells and the constant threat of disease before they get involved in drugs. They may have to live through these conditions for many, many years."
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