The government has outlined comprehensive policy changes to fight ‘P’, but it is also prepared to take further action if warranted, Prime Minister John Key said today.

In a speech in Auckland, Mr Key announced the government would use "the full force of its arsenal" to fight its use in New Zealand, which has one of the highest proportions of P users in the world.

New Zealand’s methamphetamine (or P) problem is like a balloon – stretch it one way and it will bulge in the other, according to specialist group, Methcon.

Banning cold remedy ingredient pseudoephedrine, one suggestion for fighting the problem, was achievable, staging it with prescription-only regulation first, but the “massive” global trade had to be recognised, Methcon Group director and former drug lab detective Mike Sabin said.

“There has to be a marriage between supply and demand reductions.”

New Zealand-owned Resene Paints could be one step closer to “revolutionising” the manufacturing of high performance paints.

The company won Industrial Research Limited’s (IRL) What’s Your Problem New Zealand? competition, chief science advisor to the Prime Minister professor Peter Gluckman announced at a ceremony in Auckland today.

The competition was designed to promote research and development (R&D) among New Zealand businesses.