Steve Price's surprising drug confession
Steve Price has shared the details of when he was arrested as a young man, admitting he was caught smoking marijuana.
The Project host was discussing the potential legalisation of cannabis with the rest of the panel when he made the candid admission.
The 68-year-old was quick to insist that legalising recreational marijuana “will get more people sitting around, smoking dope on the dole”, despite having a history with the drug himself.
“I will make one concession. When I was young, I was arrested,” he said, adding that he had first publicly revealed the arrest in his Herald Sun column last year.
“I had a column about a year ago and my mother didn't know about it and suddenly I got into huge trouble from her,” he said.
“Everyone was smoking marijuana that was fairly mild and I didn't take to it. I don't use it now and I didn't continue to use.”
“That's an embarrassment for me, but if I prosecute the argument that we shouldn't do, then I have to make the confession.”
In his Herald Sun column, Steve revealed that he was arrested by police and charged with drug possession for smoking marijuana some 40 years ago.
The conservative-leaning panellist disclosed the surprising details as he voiced his opposition to a national push by the Greens to legalise recreational cannabis.
The campaign, which is being led by doctor and state Greens MP Tim Read, also calls on the government to decriminalise small quantities of other drugs.
Price claimed he wanted to tell the story about his arrest to prove he wasn't a “raging hypocrite” when it came to slamming the Greens push.
“I hate what drugs do to people but I would be a raging hypocrite not to admit what had happened in the dim, dark past in my early 20s,” he wrote in The Herald Sun.
“Somewhere on file, in the bowels of the South Australia police department, would be, I guess, a folder with my name on it.”
Price was caught by police smoking a joint with two others inside a car registered in his name, as the officers discovered marijuana “in a plastic bag in the glovebox” in Price's vehicle.
Price was arrested, charged with drug possession and had to face the South Australian Magistrates’ Court over the matter.
Image credits: The Project