Steve Price, radio commentator and panellist on Channel 10's The Project, pissed a bunch of people off on Monday night after his interview with drug harm reduction advocate Matt Noffs.
The two were discussing the concept of pill testing, which was given the green light by the ACT government last week before being rolled out at Canberra's Groovin the Moo music festival.
The segment featured a lot of Price refusing to accept the possibility of pill testing as a worthwhile or viable solution to reducing overdoses. Instead, the shock jock insisted he had never taken drugs and that his children never had, either.
He was perfectly calm about the whole thing.
Noffs – of Harm Reduction Australia – told Price the illicit drug market wasn't like the alcohol market. "This is a market we know nothing about," he said. "If you or I could just have our kids not use drugs, we'd do that, but it hasn't worked Steve. It hasn't worked for 100 bloody years."
Much of Price's outrage came after Noffs could not offer up exact statistics for how many festivalgoers had thrown away their pills after the tests took place — something Noffs said would take a few weeks to obtain as they were currently being studied in a lab. "I'd be happy to come back on in three weeks," he said.
People were not impressed with Price's interview.
Steve Price is a dinosaur
Hands up if your parents are like Steve Price on @theprojecttv and they think you’ve never taken drugs in your life? 🙋🏽♀️
Just when you think Steve Price of The Project has become less of an ignorant asshole. Nope. Still an ignorant asshole. #warondrugs #theproject
@theprojecttv I am the mother of two young adults and I could not be more disgusted with Steve Price’s arrogant, know it all, opinion on the testing of illicit drugs. Never tried drugs yet he’s an advocate for not allowing the testing - ignorant, out-dated opinion! Get him off!!!
Seeing Steve Price getting owned is never not satisfying #TheProjectTV
Matt Noffs just shout down the old curmudgeon Steve Price with some facts about drug testing pills so effectively I could watch it over and over. 👏🏼#TheProjectTV
To his credit, Price has long been against the taking of any drugs and has championed the attitude that the best way to avoid harm from taking drugs is to not take them at all. In the early '00s, writer and television personality John Safran riled Price up when he convinced him there were ecstasy pills in circulation with radio 3AW's logo on them.
Have just been reminded of the time John Safran convinced Steve Price there were ecstasy tablets in circulation with the 3AW logo stamped on them being sold as "angry dwarfs" https://t.co/5yBbPjrKZM