Updated

A controversial group is hitting the streets of Honolulu, Hawaii with cash in their pockets in hopes of persuading drug addicts and alcoholics to get sterilized or go on long-term birth control.

Project Prevention, founded by Barbara Harris of North Carolina, is offering addicts $300 if they agree to pregnancy prevention methods such as hormone shots, patches or intrauterine devices.

Critics of the program argue addicts will just use the money to fuel their habits – a fact that Harris doesn’t deny.

"That's their choice if women use the money to use drugs, but babies don't have a choice," Harris told KITV.com. "At least they won't get pregnant."

Harris is no stranger to this problem. In 1997, she adopted four children from a drug-addicted mother, and it was that experience that led her to start Project Prevention.

As of last month, the organization had paid more than 3,000 addicts to either go on long-term birth control or get sterilized.

Click here to read more from KITV.com.