A year after Auckland Mayor Len Brown promised to crack down on central city alcohol issues, booze-related assaults are "bog standard".

A rented house has been demolished and a layer of topsoil removed from its section because the property was so badly contaminated by a secret P lab.

Police warn they will be proactive in cracking down on newly banned drugs under a law which came into effect at midnight.

An Auckland man has appeared in court in Brisbane today charged with trafficking synthetic cannabis into Australia.

Dairy owners are discounting legal highs as they scramble to clear their stocks ahead of looming new restrictions.

Police have uncovered a major cannabis cultivating operation in an Auckland industrial area and say the plants could have fetched up to $1 million.

It is that time of year when a bunch of skinny, obsessed men don lycra and cycle madly all over France for 21 days, in an attempt to be the one standing atop the podium in Paris.

Eminem says his addiction to prescription drugs left him with near-organ failure.

One in every eight patients admitted to an acute psychiatric unit had been using the synthetic cannabis K2, an audit published today has found.

Fresh charges of corruption and bribery have been laid against former police officer Peter Pakau, who is alleged to have organised drug runs and tipped of gangsters.

A charity set up to combat methamphetamine use and fronted by the Sir Paul Holmes before he died has stopped operating after failing to raise enough funds.

Fred was in his mid-20s when a car accident on a busy Auckland road left him with serious injuries that would require months of rehabilitation.

Recreational steroid use by New Zealanders has been described as a "huge elephant in the room" by a leading voice in the fight against doping.

Legal highs must be banned sooner rather than later, says a Coroner who ruled on the deaths of two young men who both died shortly after taking K2 and party pills.

Dion Chammey first tried synthetic cannabis a couple of years ago for recreation, but after a traumatic event it became an ingrained part of his lifestyle and almost impossible to kick, he says.

An increase in the number of patients showing up at emergency departments paranoid and agitated on synthetic cannabis is delaying the treatment of more worthy cases, says an emergency doctor.

Synthetic drug users are holding up worthy emergency cases in hospital emergency departments across the country, a senior doctor says.

Troubled Wallabies star Kurtley Beale admitted he thought long and hard about sitting out the showpiece Lions test series to focus on overcoming his alcohol problems.

Party pills will be removed from many dairies and grocery stores earlier than expected after a Lotteries Commission crackdown.

New Zealand Lotteries has demanded that 600 retailers stop selling party pills and synthetic cannabis alongside Lotto products.