Leslie asked Sam Quinones:

Did you connect to any of the "boys" and follow up with them to see how they're doing...in their newly-built houses, etc? Were you ever able to interview one of them to gauge how they felt ethically about what they did? I certainly don't see them as the bad guys in the book. You returned to some of the bad doctors for commentary and I was curious about some of the "boys."

Sam Quinones Several are still in prison, which is where I found them. A few I've followed up with. The ones I contacted are back doing the menial dead-end jobs they did before they got into heroin, which are, for many, the only jobs available to them. So drugs meant in the end no real improvement in their lives, particularly as they spent their money frequently on parties and things that didn't do much to move them forward. Enrique, though, I have no spoken to since his release from prison.

Two of them that I spoke to did have qualms. They come from a small Mexican town, after all, where drugs are frowned on. But money does override a lot of troublesome moral questions. Enrique had many rationalizations for it - someone else would have sold this had it not been me, that sort of thing. One guy is very happy to be out of it, though he's back working jobs that lead nowhere. All his friends, brothers and in-laws are involved in heroin work, but he's happy to be away from it.

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