EDITORIAL – Support for legalizing alcohol in parks is growing
(Image: CFJC Today)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
ALCOHOL IN PARKS? The concept continues to gain momentum and it’s inevitable there will be a new push for it in the Tournament Capital.
Burnaby this week approved a pilot program that will start June 23 and run through to the end of October. Vancouver completed a pilot and has approved alcohol consumption in a long list of parks permanently.
After a three-year trial period, Penticton approved a permanent so-called “booze in the beaches” policy. Kelowna will start a pilot program this summer, too.
So what about Kamloops, where it continues to be illegal?
When the idea was broached a couple of years ago, it went nowhere, but attitudes are changing.
Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
So……no drug use in parks proposed by City council but the drug that has caused the most damage to society is now being considered to be OK?
I lost two of my close friends from High School not long after graduating from Grade 13 (SW Ontario 1972). Souped up Chevelle doing about 85 miles an hour meets tree head on; early July going between “parties”. Driver and passenger had been drinking. Two closed caskets & my (late) twin brother was a pall bearer for Graham.
No booze needed in City parks, thanks very much.
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Really. Alcohol seems to be everywhere – wineries, breweries pubs are spreading like topsy.
Do we have to have it in the parks too? Not near children – children are everywhere in the park. The majority of folks drive to get there so who drives home? As a MADD supporter for decades and as someone who has taught more fetal alcohol children at different levels of the syndrome I ask: Can we not as a society keep our parks alcohol free?
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