A meth dealer and addict for 20 years, Australian Pat Smith recalls the night he fired a sawn-off shotgun at a man at point blank range. It turned his life around.

Video games are more addictive than ever. This is what happens when kids can't turn them off.

According to Tamaki, Harry Potter is a tool to recruit people toward evil.

The more porn a man watches, the less sexually intimate he is with his female partner, a new study suggests.

In a Sydney property, a postmodern shaman grows psychedelic plants he says he uses for medicine - plus one man tells of how ecstasy has helped him overcome PTSD.

West Coast had highest rate

A vicar's wife has told a tribunal how her husband led a double life as a bisexual sex addict.

As a nationwide opioid epidemic raged, DEA investigators went after companies distributing millions of highly addictive pills. Then, their cases ground to a halt.

A woman who stole 300 pieces of mail to get money for her meth habit dodged a prison sentence in court today.

This may look like the personal account of a French model, but there's more to these images than you think.

WATCH: Successful New Zealand fashion designer, Kharl WiRepa from Rotorua opens up about his life before and after his addiction to meth.

Successful New Zealand fashion designer, Kharl WiRepa from Rotorua opens up about his life before and after his addiction to meth. Made with funding from NZ on Air

A 45-year-old Bay of Plenty man who first tried P aged 26 says the Bay scene is "the worst its ever been", with meth "easier to score than cannabis.

Maori Party co-leader and Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell says he is sick and tired of attending tangi of Maori who have died as a result

Former meth addict Haydee Richards believes most people don't realise just how prevalent the drug is.

Addiction specialists have praised a police directive to treat meth dealers' clients as victims and offer them support.

Four alcoholic patients fitted with brain microchips as part of NZ research into addiction have seen their cravings for alcohol dramatically reduce.

A Dunedin-based neurosurgeon is investigating whether tiny devices implanted in the brain can stop alcoholics' cravings.

COMMENT: Smoking is the filthy-rich, tax dodging, environment-trashing capitalist pig of vices, writes Paul Thomas.

Psychological research on persuasion and self-control suggests some strategies to help you resist insidious pull of online distractions.

A simple jab could stop cravings for alcohol, cigarettes and junk food, say scientists.

The country's worst drink driver has undergone a lengthy prison rehabilitation programme aimed at stopping him offending again upon his release next month.

A new consumer behaviour survey backs other research that there is a growth of "digital dependency" in New Zealand, according to a leading academic.

Internal Affairs has abandoned an investigation into alleged irregular payments for a thoroughbred racehorse made by Sir Owen Glenn's charity.

From eating ice to picking scabs, people can become addicted to all sorts. Here are six of the strangest addictions we've come across.

'Getting stuck on a benefit is like crack cocaine,' deputy Prime Minister Bill English told a Tauranga crowd yesterday - and beneficiary advocates aren't impressed.

Robin Williams' death today followed a troubled past with cocaine and alcohol, and in July this year he checked into rehab again.

The offending of a former Department of Internal Affairs worker left one of his victims worried that his family's citizenship bid was in danger.