Sir Paul Holmes was best known for his radio and TV work. But he was a great columnist for the Herald on Sunday. Here is one of his most moving pieces, written the year he was named best columnist at the print media awards.

Police say a young trio allegedly abducted a van driver and forced him to drive them to McDonald's for a feed.

A coroner has recommended the Ministry of Health draw public attention to the dangers of taking excessive amounts of prescription drugs and mixing them with alcohol following the death of a woman in Palmerston last year.

Former All Black Norm Hewitt has approached Zac Guildford to offer the troubled winger help in his effort to overcome an alcohol problem.

Far be it for me to definitively diagnose Zac Guildford from afar, writes Chris Rattue, but a string of alcohol-related incidents indicate the young All Black has a serious problem with the firewater.

A booze and gambling-fuelled night ended with All Black Zac Guildford allegedly assaulting a partygoer at a Christchurch house 10 days ago.

A Hamilton casino worker has been sentenced to nine months' home detention for accepting financial gifts from patrons.

A gifted student risked a death sentence to smuggle $200,000 worth of heroin from Thailand to Australia after being pressured by her boyfriend.

Royce Duncan claimed his success as a gambler - not a methamphetamine manufacturer - was the reason he could afford so many expensive toys, such as a 15.2m (50ft) launch.

A rubbish bag full of $500,000 buried in the backyard of a major drug manufacturer was dug up under the cover of darkness by an associate after the property was seized by police.

Northland Labour MP Shane Jones has backed a call for people to leave it to police to deal with methamphetamine manufacturing at Whangape on the Far North west coast.

A coroner has recommended that boaties should be warned about the dangers of smoking cannabis.

A teenager has reportedly been blinded after drinking a methanol-laced cocktail in Bali.

New Zealand's "king" of legal cannabis faces trafficking charges in Australia after allegedly being found with a "commercial quantity" of drugs.

A house sale was halted during a packed auction after a forensic consultant announced the property was contaminated by P making.

Drug policy has to start from a base of logic, writes Kevin Tamati. "Peter Dunne has reasoned that it's the health consequences that provide a rationale."

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.

A tip-off by a suspicious Bunnings employee led to the discovery of a Rotorua drug manufacturing operation, a court has heard.