Mrs. Bales would know if SSGT Bales was taking the drug, I would think. The lawyer needs to know, that's for sure.
Actually, I don't know that she would. This would be issued by the military around deployment. It is taken a week or two before deployment (one pill per week). It is not used in Iraq anymore, but is still used some in Afghanistan. In the HuffPo article, they link to a blog post by a "former Army psychiatrist who was the top advocate for mental health at the Office of the Army Surgeon General",
Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, who "recently voiced concern about Bales’ possible mefloquine exposure."
Afghan Massacre: Potentially Toxic Exposures?
"In the national quest to understand what motivated Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales to leave his compound in the middle of the night, and allegedly gun down 16 men, women and children, there have been many motives already put forth. These include a “witches brew” of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), marital problems, alcohol use, seeing a friend wounded, anger over frequent deployments, and not getting a promotion.
Yet none of these seem sufficient, especially given the reports of a sunny, affable man who had two small children. I would like to introduce a few other ideas, related to the concept that he might have had a brief psychotic episode."............
........................"When I am examining a patient whose crimes seems out of character, which I do as a forensic psychiatrist, I always want to know if their behavior was due to a medical illness, medication, or illicit alcohol or drug use.
One obvious question to consider is whether he was on mefloquine (Lariam), an anti-malarial medication. This medication has been increasingly associated with neuropsychiatric side effects, including depression, psychosis, and suicidal ideation.".................
It is curious that the military, who had issued the original Mefloquine review in January puts out a new urgent request by one part of the Army on March 20 to complete that review by March 26.