EXCLUSIVE: BC Conservative MLA says NDP killed drug education bill due to misplaced priorities

The BC Conservative attorney general critic says he believes the B.C. NDP government shot down a bill aiming to teach schoolchildren hard drugs are dangerous because of a misguided approach.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The BC Conservative attorney general critic says he believes the B.C. NDP government shot down a bill aiming to teach schoolchildren hard drugs are dangerous because of a misguided progressive approach to hard drugs.

“They had one major issue with the bill,” MLA Steve Kooner explained in a phone interview. That one “major issue” was the word “stigma.”

Bill M-213, a private member’s bill, introduced by BC Conservative MLA Steve Kooner, would have made anti-drug education mandatory in all provincial, francophone and independent schools.

Kooner’s bill, intended to create the Drug Use Prevention Education in Schools Act, aimed to ensure students receive “clear and consistent anti-drug messaging” through a province-wide curriculum. It directed the education minister to implement the program within six months of receiving Royal Assent.

Under the proposal, all schools would be required to teach a curriculum that “explicitly discourages drug use,” highlights “negative health, social and legal consequences,” and “promotes stigma against drug use as a deterrent.”

That language marks a departure from harm-reduction messaging focusing on safer use or supervised consumption — such as drug-use flashcards handed out on Vancouver Island at the end of the last school year — emphasizing, instead, abstinence-based prevention.

“We already teach kids tobacco is bad, why not do the same thing with hard drugs?” Kooner asked rhetorically during an exclusive phone interview with True North.

Kooner’s bill was defeated in the current legislative session after NDP caucus members raised concerns about the word “stigma.” The bill required the curriculum to “promote stigma against drug use as a deterrent.”

As some may recall, B.C. NDP MLA Stephanie Higginson, for Ladysmith–Oceanside, previously stated in the B.C. legislature that she would not support the Drug Use Prevention Education in Schools Act. She found “explicitly discouraging drug use” to be “deeply concerning,” citing “decades of research and experience.”

True North has reached out to Higginson’s office multiple times to inquire about the “research and experience” she referenced but has not received a response.

During the second reading debate, Kooner said he was willing to amend the language to remove or replace the term, but the bill did not advance.

In 2023, B.C. recorded at least 2,511 suspected unregulated drug toxicity deaths, the worst year on record. That equates to an average of nearly seven deaths every day across the province.

Toxic, unregulated substances are now the leading cause of death in B.C. for those aged 10 to 59 — surpassing homicides, suicides, accidents and many natural diseases combined.