Addicts are to be given rewards for staying off drugs and taking health tests.

Users in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex will be given £10 shopping vouchers if they can prove they have quit their habit by passing drug tests.

The controversial system, known as contingency management, has proved successful in America where it has resulted in falling rates of drug use.

But some drug experts and patient champions have questioned the ethics of rewarding drug users and labelled the scheme a bribe.

A joint board of Brighton and Hove City Council and Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust (PCT) is expected to tender for a contractor to run drug services on Monday.

Following recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), incentives for those who kick their drug habit are to be included in the contract. A spokeswoman for the joint board said it was too early to detail how the scheme would be run.

But according to the report, vouchers rather than cash will be used.

Nice guidance suggests people at risk of health problems resulting from drug misuse should be given shopping vouchers worth up to £10 to have HIV, hepatitis or tuberculosis tests. Vouchers based on negative tests for cocaine or heroin are recommended to start at £2 and increase with each clear sample up to £10.

Dr John Dunn, a consultant psychiatrist and clinical adviser to the National Treatment Agency, said: “In the case of drug users, encouraging a very small change can have life-saving consequences.”

Michael Summers, of the Patients Association, said: “If there was an inexhaustible supply of money to run the NHS, this scheme would be fine but we know that it is not a bottomless pit.

“If they say they do not have enough money to pay for drugs which save people’s lives, we have to wonder why we give NHS money to drug users to encourage them to remain clean.”

A spokeswoman for the joint board said: “The Nice guidance recommends a number of ways of providing treatment to those involved in the misuse of drugs.

“These are based on treatments that have worked elsewhere and include offering financial incentives such as vouchers to help people at risk of physical health problems, such as hepatitis and tuberculosis.”

A spokesman for East Sussex Downs and Weald and Hastings and Rother PCTs said the trusts intended to implement the incentives.