Soldiers got high on medication while on Fiji mission

More than 100 pills were seized, including Valium.

Army and navy personnel who took prescription drugs to get high while in Fiji on a relief mission have been kicked out of the Defence Force.

Soldiers from Linton Military Camp were investigated for taking prescription medication while helping with the cleanup after Cyclone Winston last year.

Information released under the Official Information Act showed drugs were bought from a pharmacy in Suva, with soldiers taking them on board HMNZS Canterbury.

Four Linton soldiers found guilty by a tribunal were kicked out of the military.

One soldier was also found not guilty.

A member of the Royal New Zealand Navy was also found guilty and sentenced to 12 days’ detention at Burnham, then kicked out of the navy.

An investigation launched by the Defence Force uncovered the measures the personnel had undergone to hide the pills and their offending.

It found that after the drugs were bought without a prescription, two of the soldiers hid them in a leather Bible case they placed in a cyclone-damaged house.

Another soldier stashed pills in the light above their bed, and another hid pills in the rubble of a ruined church.

They were caught when their commanding officers noticed their abnormal behaviour – which included one soldier attacking a table with a machete.

Other colleagues on board noticed they were behaving abnormally.

One of the soldiers was reported to be ‘‘flipping out’’.

More than 100 pills were seized during the investigation, including Valium, tramadol, amitriptyline and Viagra.

After buying the pills, the group returned to the ship where they each ingested Valium, a prescription drug in New Zealand and Fiji, to get high.