Ilona Szabó de Carvalho is a drug policy and public security specialist with experience from Brazil and around the world. A founder of the Igarapé Institute, a think-and-do tank, she also coordinates the international Global Commission on Drug Policy.

Over the past decade, Ilona has played a central role in triggering debate on progressive approaches to preventing violence, advocating gun control and police reform, and dealing with drugs, pushing for a radical re-examination of key policies. In particular, recognizing that drug prohibition has done little to slake demand for drugs or to reduce profit margins for the cartels (and the armed violence to which they are inexorably linked), de Carvalho believes we should shift the control of drugs from organized crime to governments -- and view abuse as a health problem, not as a criminal offense.