Dr Stuart Taylor is Staff Tutor in Social Policy and Criminology at the Open University. He has spent the last 25 years working in the criminal justice/criminological trenches, initially as a practitioner with Derbyshire and Merseyside Probation Services, and latterly as an academic at both Liverpool John Moores University and the Open University. His primary interests lie in the field of substance use and the interconnections between sociocultural construction of ‘drugs’, prohibitionist drug policies and social harm. Previous research projects have included studies on cannabis use and cultivation, and the employment of self-testing drug checking technologies among ecstasy users. Stuart has published widely on issues of drugs and drug policy, acted as Academic Consultant on the BBCs Drugs Map of Britain series, and contributed articles, talks and podcasts for organisations and projects such as Talking Drugs, Drug Policy Voices, Volteface, People and Dancefloors and The Conversation.
