Jacob Matthew Presnall, 42, was sentenced to two and-a-half years’ imprisonment in the Oamaru District Court this week after earlier pleading guilty to aggravated robbery.
The court heard that on July 11, Presnall took a large butcher’s knife to a pharmacy in Thames St.
An employee handed over two bottles of the drug which contained fewer than 200 pills.
After uttering an apology to staff on his way out, Presnall poured the pills into his mouth, a police summary said.
Minutes later he approached a police officer and confessed what he had done.
This week, counsel Michael de Buyzer said his client had struggled with his mental health for a long time.
He said Presnall had sought help in the days before the offending, but did not receive any assistance.
Mr de Buyzer said the crime happened "against a backdrop of extreme mental health issues" and the defendant was in an "extremely disturbed" state of mind.
Judge Dominic Dravitzki agreed and called the robbery "a real plea for help".
"It was a response to a total crisis in your life, you were beside yourself," the judge said.
He sympathised with the pharmacy staff and said they were targeted all too often.
"This must’ve been an incredibly frightening and confronting incident for them," Judge Dravitzki said.
The court heard Presnall had 83 convictions, mostly for dishonesty offending, and was serving a sentence of intensive supervision at the time of the offending.
Along with the prison term, Judge Dravitzki made a firearms prohibition order, which prevents high-risk defendants from accessing, possessing or using any firearms for up to 10 years.
The judge declined an application by the Otago Daily Times to photograph the defendant.
