Stuart Rodger

Stuart Rodger is a political activist and student based at Glasgow University, who is currently setting up Labour For Sensible Drug Policy.

Revisiting Easterhouse, home of Iain Duncan Smith's 'epiphany'

As the Work and Pension's Secretary resigns after six years, we return to Glasgow's Easterhouse, where his professed mission to abolish poverty began.

By Stuart Rodger

/ 20 Mar 2016

From oil-rigs to foodbanks: what life in Aberdeen says about why we must vote Yes

A visit to Britain's oil capital reveals grinding poverty amidst a sea of wealth.

By Stuart Rodger

/ 1 Sep 2014

Why has Barack Obama done so little about America’s most racist domestic policy?

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, it was hailed by many as a final triumph over race. Some people muttered at the time that the US remains a deeply racially divided country, and that Obama’s victory was one merely at the level of political symbols. Four years later, it is hard to overstate qu

By Stuart Rodger

/ 15 Oct 2012

The environmental case for drug legalisation

The number of people in Colombia killed by US tobacco is way beyond the number of Americans killed by Colombian cocaine… Do they have a right to come to the United States and carry out chemical warfare on North Carolina and Kentucky because they have a tobacco problem and it’s coming from here?

By Stuart Rodger

/ 14 May 2012

The one sure way to reduce prostitution: heroin prescription

We are at a point in the drugs policy debate now where it is no longer heretical to critique conventional wisdom; that is, to critique a policy which bears virtually zero relation to medical and sociological evidence. How many more women have to beaten, raped, or murdered before we finally see sen

By Stuart Rodger

/ 5 Jan 2012

How drug legalisation could save Britain's economy

Legalising drugs in the UK could help solve the economic crisis while decreasing addiction. Why isn't the policy going ahead? Because it would be political suicide.

By Stuart Rodger

/ 27 Oct 2011