A controversial program rewards drug users for accepting temporary or permanent birth control, reports The Daily Sentinel, in Colorado.

To qualify for the Project Prevention program, women must prove that they use drugs by presenting an arresting document, a statement from a rehabilitation clinic, or another official form. The clinic gives the women $300 and either Depo-Provera, Norplant, or Implanon. Men and women who elect to undergo sterilization, through vasectomy or tubal ligation, must be sober to make the decision. Altogether, about 2,500 women have been paid to use birth control, the newspaper reports.

Other groups argue that paying drug addicts only enables them to buy more drugs and that sterilizing substance abusers amounts to racial discrimination. But health officials in Colorado and Barbara Harris, who runs Project Prevention, point to the health problems suffered by children of addicts.

“I believe with all my heart that I’m preventing a tragedy,” says Ms. Harris.