PLAYING FOR KEEPS: They administer 200,000 students. They have budgets in the millions. And they send delegates to countries like Libya for "training". The battle for control of New Zealand’s tertiary student associations is downright dirty, as HAMISH CARNACHAN discovered

DARK FIRE: It may be hard to believe, but New Zealand now has one of the worst narcotics epidemics in the Western world, according to a United Nations survey out this month. CLARE SWINNEY goes underground, talking to drug manufacturers, suppliers and users for a unique perspective on the methamphetamine explosion

READERS POLL: What’s the vote on lifting the GM moratorium? Do you think Peter Ellis is really innocent? How many people support Margaret Wilson’s Supreme Court? All this and more in our 2003 Poll Results

CHOCOLATE FIX: Since deregulation in 84, New Zealand companies have been urged to go for the niche market, to add value to survive. but as HAMISH CARNACHAN reports in part two of our economic reality series, even a big chocolate fish in a small pond can still be eaten by predators...