Stay Clean, Earn Prizes

Clinics Offer Addicts Incentives To Stay Off Drugs

(AP)  There are worse things you can do for money than stay off drugs.

"And I've done them, too," chuckled Allen Price, a 43-year-old methamphetamine addict from Oakland, Calif.

So when a friend told him about a 12-week program in San Francisco that would pay him up to $40 per week just to stay clean, he decided it was just what he needed.

For five weeks since, he has trekked to a clinic several times a week to submit a urine sample, and pick up a few dollars for testing negative.

"What appealed to me was the positiveness of it," he said. "It is a motivation. Stay off drugs and get some benefits out of it. Why not give it a try?"

The idea of paying people to stay clean has caught on around the country amid a growing body of research indicating the practice can help keep addicts off drugs.

Smokers in a two-year study at the University of Florida can get vouchers redeemable at Target, Wal-Mart or Amazon.com if they pass a test on whether they have had a cigarette.

A study of 415 cocaine and methamphetamine users published last October in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that they stayed in treatment longer if they had a chance to win a prize.

Dr. Lisa A. Marsch, a researcher with the National Development and Research Institutes, runs a program at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York that offers teenagers medication, counseling and reward vouchers for testing clean for drugs like heroin.

"It can be a very powerful technique," she said. "If it increases their motivation to stay clean even a little, it's worth doing."

Teens in Marsch's program must submit three urine samples a week. Pass, and the patient gets a voucher that can be used to buy something. The amounts start small but rise with every clean result. The second test might be worth $3.75, the third, $5. A person who remains drug-free for two months could earn as much as $596 in all.