Sloth, torpor, idleness. Forget the negative connotations, for it turns out they might actuallybe good for us. Kate Bussmann managed to put down her iPad and allowed her mind to wander for the purposes of research.

With the news that researchers believe they have discovered a compound that could revolutionise the treatments of addiction, Greg Dixon asks why only some people become addicts and why society seems to view some addictions as ‘worse’ than others.

It's been found on nearly every bank note in the UK, in toilets at Parliament - now tests confirm cocaine traces are in Britain's drinking water.

A mum jailed today for almost three years for raising two kids in a clandestine P lab was blasted by a judge as being an "abysmal failure" as a mother.

A 10 per cent tax hike on tobacco introduced today will help more Kiwis escape a "creeping death", anti-smoking advocates say.

In a rare case of life imitating art, a 53-year-old goatee-wearing man named Walter White has been caught dealing an "extraordinary" quantity of methamphetamine.

Rocker Pete Doherty is preparing to pay thousands of dollars in blackmail money over private film footage shot during his romance with supermodel Kate Moss.

A baby who died while in CYF care was born to a mother who was taking methadone and the infant had to be given morphine to wean him off the drug, an inquest has heard.

Forcing up tobacco taxes every year is having an effect. It's hitting the price point for many smokers, galvanising their resolve to quit.

In some circles you’re the odd one out if you don’t own a phone that can receive emails and browse the net. But that doesn’t bother Amy Williams, who is among a die-hard group stubbornly resisting pressure to upgrade their dumbphones.

Can't quit smoking? The answer may lie in your genes, according to a new study from Dunedin.

A banned poker machine addict slipped through all SkyCity's safety systems to play his way to VIP status in the casino's high-roller room - blowing $500,000 in the process.

Sarah was losing her husband. It wasn't another woman who had slipped into her life. Instead, John was taken by SkyCity casino.

Joe Jackson learned of his son Michael's death from a fan.

A "grossly intoxicated" man who took a samurai sword to his mother's throat when she refused to hand over his car keys has been ordered to undergo alcohol counselling.

The positives of drug use need to be spoken of freely, according to a visiting British academic.

A man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia tried to kill his brother-in-law days after being released from a mental health unit at Auckland Hospital.