EDITORIAL – Bepple shows political courage with her stand on drugs
(Image: CFJC Today)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
COUN. NANCY BEPPLE doesn’t get as much attention as some of the other Kamloops City councillors but she’s not afraid to go against the flow on occasion.
Her middle name should be “Point of Order” for the number of times she interrupts Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson when he tries to speak at council meetings, and she’s solidly in the Gang of Eight, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t think for herself.
I wrote on the weekend about her notice of motion on the war in Gaza but there’s another issue on which she’s departed from the mainstream.
At the most recent council meeting, she patiently waited for Coun. Katie Neustaeter to fulminate on the B.C Supreme Court decision that at least temporarily shelves provincial legislation on public consumption of illicit drugs.
Then, under councillor reports, she said she sides with the court in refusing to ban public consumption. Her position is that such a move would push drug users into consuming illicit drugs in hiding, which puts them at heightened risk.
It’s not the first time she’s said it, but this was a very clear confirmation in a very public venue. Those who take exception to the judge’s decision pay lip service to the need for supervised consumption sites, saying they want tougher restrictions on public consumption while at the same time acknowledging that more supervised sites are needed.
Bepple, on the other hand, says that unless and until supervised sites are widely available, public consumption must be tolerated. I disagree both with her and the Neustaeter side.
Public consumption of illicit drugs should be stopped, with or without inhalation consumption sites, because the public good should be placed above the good of the drug-addicted.
Nevertheless, Bepple deserves some credit for her willingness to take a politically unpopular stand. She may be wrong on this particular issue but she stands on her principles.
We need more of that.
I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.
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 
“A little more than three years after Oregon voters made their state the first jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize drug possession in 2021, legislators are scrambling to write a new set of laws amid a public revolt against the state’s experiment with rapid drug policy liberalization”.
“In the year leading up to May, 2023, Oregon overdose deaths rose 17 per cent, far greater than the national average increase of less than 1 per cent. The state has had faster growth in teen drug deaths than any other state.”
Anyone supporting liberalization of drug use is inflicting immeasurable harm on lives and their communities. This is not courage. It is pure shame. Listen to those who came before you and failed miserably. Heed the evidence before your eyes instead of running on pure emotion.
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A recipe for disaster:
Take one or more progressives
Add equal parts hubris, ignorance and narcissistic compassion
Put aside pressing local issues and let sit
Sprinkle inflated sense of self importance
Stir in personal feelings while ignoring expert evidence
Add three teaspoons of opposing overall public opinion
Let all common sense and logic drain through cheesecloth
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes at supervised inhalation site
Serve fetid and luke warm
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I am reminded of an old saying. Something about a particular destination, a road, and it being paved with good intentions. Concepts like stigma have served a useful purpose in society for millennia. Every now and then, someone comes along and thinks themselves more clever than history itself. The consequences of these decisions can be devastating. Maybe it’s hubris, ego, or misguided empathy. But history often shows that people are often not as clever as they think they are.
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I could be mistaken, but I understood most people who “use” so-called recreational drugs, die at home alone from so-called accidental overdoses.
Are we not talking about “open drug use in public spaces” ?
I believe that “”the rest of us”” have a right NOT to be exposed to toxic chemicals on our streets, in our parks and in public places.
Our dog could have easily be poisoned one summer morning as I happened to find discarded zip lock bags along Rivers Trail near Moira House…..plastic bags that contained powdery residue.
Nancy should learn to listen to the people who are citizens and are FED UP with exposure to toxic chemicals. She may be brave and like having her own opinion, in which case, perhaps public office is not for her.
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The large amount of modified or older diesel pickups and commercial trucks are arguably a greater menace to public health than “open drug use”.
Indeed, according to some qualified writings I read most drug-related fatalities do happen in private settings.
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I too have been exposed to toxic drugs by way of addicts in public places. A meth head exhaled what must have been fentanyl as I walked past him abusing this poison on the Rivers Trail. The smell was disgusting and I went to the hospital to make sure I wasn’t going to overdose.
If this is the society Nancy Bepple wants, it’s not something I support in any capacity. Drug addicts are losers, and not only do they contribute nothing to society, but they and their supporters are bringing it all down with them.
Drug addicts make a personal choice every time they self harm. I support that choice 100%, but that choice and the consequences need to be their own again, not offloaded into everyone else in the name of narcissistic progressive compassion.
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We need far less of misguided support for policies than are ineffective in their stated goals while turning communities upside down in pursuit of some progressive drug market Shangri-La.
What is the point of standing on principle when your principles are wrong and you enjoy wearing blinders? There is nothing noble in that – pushing harmful ideology in the face of incontrovertible evidence is called dogmatism, and is the last thing we need from those in positions of influence.
Consumption extremists pushing for sanctioned abuse facilities in our communities are bedfellows with those pushing the street product.
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