Richard Stevenson directs the Health Economics Unit and lectures in the Department of Economics at Liverpool University in the United Kingdom. He has done research and has published in many areas of health economics. His interest in illegal drugs stems from concern for the welfare of users and from the study of the economics of neonatal intensive care for low-birthweight infants, some of whom are born addicted to drugs.

Publications on drug matters include Winning the War on Drugs: To Legalise or Not? (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1994); and Harm Reduction, Rational Addiction and the Optimal Prescribing of Illegal Drugs (Contemporary Economic Policy 12 [July 1994]: 101-08).