New alcohol laws have had a promising start with a quiet night reported on the last Friday before Christmas.

It's 3am on Thursday in central Auckland and a young woman, pale and unaware of her surroundings, clutches her bag of McDonald's tightly.

Comedian Guy Williams is used to being the sober one at a party. He has never drunk alcohol, except the occasional beer and he's one of the ambassadors for Hello Sunday Morning.

Police in central Auckland issued a handful of infringement notices early yesterday morning as sweeping new alcohol laws came into effect.

A funny portrayal of a "cool dad" in a television ad about under-18s drinking has won praise for challenging parents' thinking on how they should behave at young people's parties.

A new study has shown that a major contributor to alcohol-related harm among underage drinkers is their older mates supplying them with large amounts of booze.

Students at a top Auckland secondary school were breath tested for alcohol as they arrived for their final day at school last week.

Student bar Shadows, at the University of Auckland campus, is sparsely populated at 10pm on a Wednesday. Three groups of young people sit around tables, sipping glasses of beer poured from the bar's ubiquitous jugs - or from slim-line cans of RTDs.

When a Rotorua woman who drove into two pedestrians tried to explain to a judge she'd only had two glasses of wine, he asked 'What were they - buckets?'

Noisy night patrons of a student bar on Massey University's Albany campus are targets of new liquor controls for nearby suburban streets and reserves.

Astonished police have charged a woman driver who they say blew one of New Zealand's highest recorded breath-alcohol levels.

A new study on the burden drunken rugby fans place on emergency medical services has prompted a call for an anti-binge drinking ad campaign.

On Thursday night, while Jesse Ryder lay in intensive care in Christchurch Hospital after a savage and apparently random beating that has left him fighting for his life, I drove home from work just after midnight.

In a bid to cut down unnecessary hospital admissions, five Auckland organisations have set up a temporary 'safe house' for out-of-control revellers.

Judges let off around 50 people a year for drink-driving - with reasons ranging from models wanting to work overseas and wannabe police officers and nannies.

Alcohol advertising is so seamlessly blended into social media and smartphone technology that government will struggle to regulate it, a researcher says.

Having multiple sexual partners is a significant predictor of women turning to drink and drugs in later life, a new study suggests.

Zac Guildford's girlfriend hopes the experts are proved right and the rugby renegade can be okay after four weeks of treatment.

Hundreds of people were arrested and charged with alcohol-related offences during a poilce operation aimed at highlighting the implications associated with alcohol misuse in public.