Editorial: Dreams built on crime won't last

What really gets me is that gang members think there is any kind of long-term future in criminal activities at this level. Photo / Thinkstock

It would appear to be an interesting life if you're a Headhunters gang affiliate right about now.

Of course, being a Headhunters gang member is probably always going to be "interesting". It is entirely possible a life of waiting for that crash at 5am that means your door is getting kicked in by the police adds a certain zest to your livelihood.

I think what puzzles me is that being involved in the kind of infrastructure the Headhunters are into - which is organised crime on a significant scale - there's no happy ending in sight if you're a gang member involved in it. I can't deny the profits are probably impressive, and easy. Drugs are an absolute cash cow. Internationally, it funds terrorism.

I could harp on about the ripple effect the police talk about, the misery that comes from drugs, and how major crime and all the organisation that goes with it breeds a lot of minor crime. A lot of what might seem like "random" crime such as burglaries will have origins in organised crime - and drugs.

But what really gets me is that gang members think there is any kind of long-term future in criminal activities at this level, in this small country.

Seriously, do you really think you're going to grow old, retire, and watch your grandchildren play in your backyard at your beach house in Whitianga, on the earnings from drugs?

Part of being a sustainable part of society is working to ensure your future survival, that your family are provided for, that your children have a secure future. If you're a criminal, the law has the right to tear down everything you've created as shelter. They can pull apart all your hard work, shatter your dreams and completely turf yourself and your family into upheaval, perhaps even destitution.

It's inevitable it will happen. Society doesn't like you. The law definitely doesn't like you. The only possible, inevitable ending, is you ending up in jail and your family is scratching an existence from the state. Does that sound like winning to you? Sounds like a miserable way to treat your family. Build dreams that last. Drugs, as a fix, is over too quick.