New Zealand soldiers got high on prescription drugs during mission

Man questioned over drugs 'stunk' of lying, commander says

Soldiers who bought more than 100 prescription pills, got high and attacked a table with a machete have been discharged.

The four New Zealand soldiers stocked up on pills from a pharmacy in Suva, Fiji — where they were helping clean up after Cyclone Winston in 2016 — before smuggling them on board HMNZS Canterbury.

Their commanding officer uncovered the drug-taking when a soldier smashed a table with a machete and another was seen "flipping out", NZ Herald reported.

The pills included Valium, tramadol and Viagra, the site said, and were stashed in cyclone-damaged property as well as in a light fitting.

A pair of the men hid pills in a leather bible cover they hid inside a ruined house.

Commander Simon Rooke said of his encounter with one of the men: "I have spent 25 years watching and talking to sailors in various situations and consider I'm pretty good at smelling a lie, and he stunk of it."

Four soldiers, one of a higher rank than the others, were discharged, the Herald reported, while a fifth was found not guilty at a summary trial.