Each participant was interviewed in sessions lasting from 2 to 4 hours, for a total of 10 to 25 hours over the course of the study. Eighteen participants were male and 12 were female. Twenty-four were under institutional or community correctional supervision. The participants included 22 blacks and 8 whites. Results revealed that these stable addicts were skilled and successful criminal entrepreneurs. Most narrowed the range of their criminal activities considerably in the process of becoming stable addicts, although they were not professionals or specialists in the senses described by previous researchers. The main hustle of each addict required three broad types of skills: technical skills, social skills, and intuitive skills. Their main hustles represented more or less full-time criminal roles and produced a life structure that prevented the heroin habit from becoming uncontrollable. The main hustle was both a primary means of income and a source of identity and prestige in the subculture.