IRI hosted a conversation with Carmen Masías, Peru’s director of the National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs. Masías visited IRI during a trip to Washington to meet with U.S. lawmakers and drug control officers to discuss continued joint efforts to curb drug use and trafficking in Peru.
During a roundtable discussion, Masías met with members of civil society as well as State Department and United States Agency for International Development officials, and discussed her country’s innovative three-point drug control strategy that relies on interdiction, alternative development and drug-use prevention and rehabilitation. The new strategy, spearheaded by Masías after her appointment in 2012, integrates social programming and economic development to address the conditions that lead poor rural families to produce and traffic drugs. During the discussion, Masías also stressed the importance of a global commitment in the fight against drug-trafficking and drug use.
With a background in social psychology and substance abuse counseling, Masías has brought a unique perspective to the conversation on drug control not only in Peru but throughout the Western Hemisphere.
IRI works with Peruvian members of Congress and their staff to understand and implement their legislative, representative and oversight responsibilities to better address issues facing their constituents like drug-trafficking.
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