Kelowna News

Harm reduction vending machine in Rutland gets attention

Clean needles from machine

Rob Gibson - Dec 3, 2025 / 4:00 am | Story: 587264

Photo: Christopher Bocskei

A harm-reduction vending machine has been operating for five years in Rutland.

The federal Conservative health critic recently paid a visit to a harm reduction vending machine in Rutland.

Chris Bocskei, who ran for Kelowna city council in 2022, posted photos of himself to social media with Manitoba MP Dan Mazier at the vending machine along Highway 33.

Bocskei says he met with Mazier to tour Rutland and talk about the ongoing drug crisis and its impact.

"I picked a safe needle and he picked a crack pipe from the machine," says Bocskei.

The vending machine is free and has been set up in front of The Bridge Youth and Family Services Society on Highway 33 near Hollywood Road since August 2020.

Luke Brimmage, executive director with The Bridge Youth and Family Services, tells Castanet the vending machine was initially set up to provide 24/7 access to supplies like clean needles, shorting straws, foil, Naloxone, and hygiene items such as condoms for at-risk groups.

The vending machine does not contain any drugs.

"Rutland as a whole has very limited access to harm reduction services and services like this in general," says Brimmage.

The service also includes twice daily access to community health care professionals who can check to make sure drugs are safe and act as a liaison to offer help to those in need.

"We have a sea can unit set up there that our team works in. Participants come to that sea can and we work with them and have those conversations there, right at the vending machine," Brimmage says.

Despite being there for five years, people who live in the community, like Bocskei, say they didn't know the vending machine existed.

Rutland lands right between the provincial ridings represented by Gavin Dew, MLA for Kelowna Mission and Tara Armstrong, MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream.

Dew, a BC Conservative, said the people of Rutland "are tired of carrying a disproportionate weight" of the drug crisis.

"We need a serious change of direction. We need a greater focus on recovery, we need involuntary care, we need public safety resources, and we need an end to sidewalks and playgrounds and parks littered with needles and other used drug paraphernalia," says Dew.

Harm reduction vending machines became a talking point in B.C. last year in the run up to the provincial election after the BC Conservatives publicized a series of them placed at Vancouver Island hospitals.

Tara Armstrong, member of OneBC, says the province should stop "enabling addiction."

"A OneBC government will 're-stigmatize' the use of illicit drugs, hearkening back to education and advertising campaigns decades ago that aimed to reduce smoking. We will defund the addictions industry," she said.

Brimmage, meanwhile, says his people have made contact with more than 3,000 people in the Central Okanagan through their programs.

"One of the biggest misconceptions is the idea that harm reduction enables drug use, that's not what this is about. This is about keeping people safe, educating them and providing an access point that they may not have had into the healthcare system," says Brimmage.

The Bridge Youth and Family Services say they are committed to working with the community and are happy to have a dialogue with anyone who is interested in learning more about their programs.

"We are at community events to talk about our programs, and we're always willing to answer a call or be invited to have a conversation with really anybody," says Brimmage.

The Bridge Youth and Family Services supports individuals to access health and harm reduction services in partnership with Interior Health. For more information call 250-763-0456.