Ana Salas

Instituto sobre Alcoholismo y Farmacodependencia (IAFA)

In 1972 the Government of Costa Rica and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) sign an agreement in which the Alcoholism Center (CESA) is created, becoming the first center of studies on alcoholism in Latin America. In 1973 The National Institute of Alcoholism (INSA) is created, as a dependency of the Ministry of Health, which replaced all the effects of the Commission. The INSA sets in the spotlight on the problematic of drugs in the country. Product of the profits reached with a permanent public policy in the matter of prevention and attention on alcoholism, in 1982 the INSA was named National Center of Reference by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). By the end of the 80´s epidemiology of the Costa Rican population begins to show important variations, mainly in relation to drug consumption of cocaine and crack. In 1986, with the approval of law No. 7035, the INSA becomes the Institute on Alcoholism and Pharmacodependency (IAFA) and in 2002 the law N. 8289 grants instrumental legal personality to the IAFA. Mission IAFA is the organization which coordinates, promotes and develops sustainable programs for the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation on the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. It regulates the national advertising industry on the production of promotional material of spirits, tobacco and programs related to institutional aims. IAFA participates in the formulation of policies that allow to offer a variety of responses -with the help of others social actors- to the problematic derived from the consumption of these substances.