Mongrel Mob's Harry Tam: People want to change, but they don’t know how

Harry Tam, a lifetime honorary member of the Mongrel Mob and one of the people behind the contentious Kahukura drug rehab programme, says tackling meth addiction within gangs will only come if members trust and respond to those trying to help them.

Tam told Q+A with Jack Tame that meth addiction is a “huge problem” within gangs, with many members entering the trade as users.

“People get into selling meth initially to support their own habit then they realise they can make quick money and big money and then they go on and on.”

He told Tame that it's not enough to focus on disrupting and reducing supply of meth.

“If our whole strategy is around cutting off supply, that will work so far. What we need to focus on is also reducing demand.”

Tam said that addiction, and gang membership itself, can be linked back to the abuse people suffered in state care.

“You only have to have a look at what’s coming out of the Royal Commission of Inquiry you know where … gangs originated from in New Zealand. It’s the people that have been in state care and have been abused and their traumas have never been dealt with.

"So, it's an intergenerational transfer of trauma and dysfunction.”

He argued that outside intervention is difficult, and that the best way to deliver drug programmes is using people gang members can relate to.

“A lot of our people don’t trust people … and if you look into their backgrounds they’ve got good reasons not to trust authority. A lot of people have been institutionalised most of their lives.

“We often assume that you know, you can just rock on up and say; ‘Hey bro, I wanna put you through rehab.’ And it’ll be ‘Piss Off.’ But, if it's somebody that [they] can trust that comes in there and [they] have the conversations, you’ll be amazed what comes out.

"People want change, but they don’t know how to change."

Tam added that it wasn't helpful that people tended to consider gangs as the "other", because it meant no matter what they did to try and improve, they would always be seen negatively. 

"We just want to demonise people because we've got this society where it's all about who is worthy and who is not. It doesn't matter what we do to someone, they're still not worthy."

The Government said last week $2.75 million from Proceeds of Crime funding was given to a Mongrel Mob-led meth rehabilitation programme.

Corrections, the Ministry of Health and police were among those backing the move. However, National's police spokesman Simeon Brown said funding "sends all the wrong messages". 

"If we want to get their members off drugs we should be funding organisations like the Salvation Army who have a proven track record with working with gang members to help them get off meth," he said.

The National Party today released the latest billboard in its "Demand the Debate" campaign. In it, it asks: "$2.75M for the Mob?"

“Giving $2.75 million to the Mongrel Mob and their Trust in the Hawkes Bay shows the Government is completely devoid of the reality of the misery gangs cause to law-abiding New Zealanders," leader Judith Collins said.

Meanwhile, Police Association president Chris Cahill said he "totally rejects" the decision to fund the Kahukura programme.

Cahill said he had been contacted by officers asking why they should even bother taking the risks they do to bring to account gangs who are armed, dangerous, and dealing meth on a massive scale, when the money is just going to go back to the gangs.

"One officer likened it to the most successful money laundering scheme he’d heard," Cahill said.

Police Minister Poto Williams defended the funding for Kahukura on Q+A today.

“We are funding a programme that has been shown through the pilot to work. We are not funding the gangs, I want to be really clear on that," Williams said. 

She criticised the role played by the Mongrel Mob and others in the drug trade in New Zealand.

She added that “gangs are a huge problem in terms of what they do around peddling meth” and called on people like Tam to do more to “disrupt and dismantle” gangs.