Internal documents indicate that Canada's new conservative government believes that there are more benefits to shutting down a Vancouver safe-injection site for drug users than allowing the program to continue operating, the Vancouver Sun reported March 26.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, already a critic of such harm-reduction programs, seems to believe that closing the program and enduring the ensuing backlash -- including lawsuits, criticism from Vancouver officials and the possibility that the program will continue to operate illegally -- would be better than keeping it open and incurring the wrath of international anti-drug officials.

The head of the International Narcotics Control Board, for example, recently criticized Canada for allowing the program to operate legally, saying it "encouraged illegal trafficking."

The Health Canada analysis of the pros and cons of closing the Vancouver program was compiled in April 2006.