NRL boss Dave Smith has confirmed the league has taken over ownership of the Gold Coast Titans as the struggling club reels from drug allegations against five players.

Fears are growing that more players, both current and former, across three football codes will be implicated in the Queensland cocaine scandal that has engulfed the NRL.

It's "very likely" Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan will be moved from their Bali jail cells for execution this week, Bali's chief prosecutor says.

Nearly a quarter of new cases of psychosis are linked to high-potency "skunk like" cannabis, new research shows.

Australian officials will be advised of Indonesia's procedures for executing Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran at a meeting in Jakarta tomorrow.

The mastermind behind the Bali Nine drug trafficking plot is reportedly living large after winning the lottery as two Australians face execution.

A man allegedly trying to sell drugs to tourists abandoned his 11-month-old toddler in a pram on a Northland street when he fled from police.

Sydney police believe revellers at a dance festival where a teenager died of an overdose had been playing a dangerous drug game.

Indonesian authorities are waiting for a Nigerian drug boss and others to receive word their clemency bids have been rejected before scheduling their executions and that of two Australians.

Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan are, by all accounts, model prisoners.

Four Queensland adult stores have been raided after a batch of synthetic cannabis claimed two lives.

A man in Queensland has died and another is critically ill after suspected poisoning from a batch of synthetic cannabis.

Kiwi facing years in Thai jail on drugs charges left home under new name after alleged credit card fraud against 10 people.

A "one-off" drug deal at a Wanaka preschool has resulted in two teachers having their registrations torn up.

His songs are full of references to drinking and drugs and now Ed Sheeran has claimed he "fell in love with a beanbag" when he tried ecstasy.

Six men have been charged after police seized almost three tonnes of narcotics worth more than A$1.5 billion ($1.62 billion) in Australia's second largest drug bust.

Lady Gaga has credited Sir Elton John with saving her when she was struggling with drink and drugs.

Two brothers who own $5 million worth of property were "flying under the radar" before a drugs raid on their home in an upmarket Auckland suburb.

A new UK government study on harsh punishments for recreational drug use underlines how wrong-headed NZ parliamentarians were, writes Brian Rudman.

New Zealand's horse racing industry is ramping up its $50,000-a-year random drug testing of jockeys.

A champion New Zealand boxer has been sentenced to more than two years' imprisonment for manufacturing methamphetamine.

A former senior police officer - on trial over allegations of stealing and dealing in drugs - has pleaded guilty on two charges this morning.

A senior drug crime detective gamed the police drug storage system and cut one big methamphetamine seizure with table salt to disguise his theft, the High Court was told.

A cousin of Winston Churchill has died, leaving the son he once described as a "black sheep" to inherit one of Britain's most prestigious aristocratic titles.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush says all staff “feel betrayed” by their former colleague Peter Pakau, who yesterday pleaded guilty to 14 charges.

West Auckland policeman Peter Pakau has today pleaded guilty to 14 charges relating to methamphetamine, accepting bribes, corruption and accessing the police computer.

An inmate with more than 100 convictions was taken to North Shore Hospital after allegedly hiding drugs and a mobile phone in his rectum.

The home-baked illicit drug krokodil first emerged in provincial Russia during the early 2000s.

Oamaru synthetic cannabis users appear to be turning to smoking incense for their cheap thrills.