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Actor Matthew Perry exchanged heated words with British journalist Peter Hitchens about drug addiction and prevention on BBC’s Newsnight, with the former Friends star claiming Hitchens’ ideas were as “ludicrous as saying that Peter Pan was real”.
Hitchens lambasted addicts as people who chose to take drugs and did not deserve sympathy, especially from the “feeble” legal system.
Reacting to Hitchens, Perry ranted: Perry jokingly hit back: “When do I get to speak?” I didn’t come here to listen to ludicrous things like that…
“You are making a point that is as ludicrous as saying Peter Pan is real.”
At one point he referred to the journalist as “Santa” and told him to “read something other than your book” in reference to Mr Hitchens’ essay The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment’s Surrender To Drugs.
And as Perry insisted his addiction was an allergy he could not stop, he told Hitchens: “It’s supposed to be grown men here…
“You’re just a person who’s talking who’s wrong.”
Mr Hitchens, who has previously debated drugs policy with former heroin addict and comedian Russell Brand, countered that more people take illegal substances since possession was effectively made legal.
He hit back at Perry: “This is a very serious subject and you treat it with immense levity.
“The policy which you so smugly and loftily advocate, this policy has led to disaster in Western countries for decades.”
After the ding-dong, Newsnight editor Ian Katz tweeted that he had dispatched a producer to take Perry and Mr Hitchens out of the building through different exits.
Where’s Joey Tribbiani when you need him?!
Agencies/Canadajournal
