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The Defence Force is investigating whether drug use in its ranks stretches beyond the six soldiers sent home in disgrace from Afghanistan for allegedly using hashish.
The Commander of Joint Forces New Zealand, Major General Rhys Jones, said yesterday that although there was no evidence to indicate a wider problem, it was prudent to follow up the possibility.
"As part of that process we are looking at - is this wider in the mission area, in the current deployment up there, has it been occurring in previous deployments?" General Jones said.
"There's no evidence at the moment to indicate that this drug issue is wider than the six that we found in Bamiyan."
The unnamed six face a court martial after allegedly using the Class B drug - a potent form of cannabis - at the NZ Provincial Reconstruction Team base in Bamiyan Province. They are junior Army personnel based at Linton Camp in Palmerston North.
General Jones said the drug was allegedly obtained by the soldiers in Afghanistan through a local contact.
He said the Defence Force did not tolerate the use of drugs, but "it would be foolish" to believe that no soldier, no sailor or airman took drugs.
Taking them was unacceptable, particularly because other people's lives were at stake in an environment where weapons were present, General Jones said.
The Defence Force made the comments during an update for media on its operations around the world.
The Cabinet has just approved the deployment of up to 18 more personnel to Afghanistan, where just over a week ago an improvised explosive device was detonated metres in front of a New Zealand Defence Force vehicle.
General Jones said the incident was being investigated by coalition force bomb experts, and it appeared to follow the pattern of other attacks.
The device was believed to have been triggered remotely using a cellphone, and was large enough to have incapacitated a vehicle had it hit it in the wrong place.
"We were fortunate that it seemed to be operated by someone who wasn't used to operating in the area."
While the extra feet on the ground in Afghanistan would be useful, General Jones said, the armoured vehicles known as LAV3s would not be suitable for the team's tasks. The weight of the vehicle and the nature of the tasks the team there was undertaking made the LAV3s unsuitable.
