Charity in gun over drug firm sponsor

Millie Elder and Paul Holmes.

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The celebrity-backed anti-drug charity, The Stellar Trust, has been slammed over its sponsorship deal with a pharmaceutical company responsible for producing pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in P.

The Stellar Trust, fronted by broadcaster Paul Holmes, announced details of its $70,000 sponsorship deal with Glaxo Smith Kline, the makers of Coldrex flu tablets, after inquiries by the Sunday Star-Times.

It said the money would be used to pay Tauranga-based heroin addict Pat Buckley to speak to around 50 secondary schools about his "hellish ride" with substance abuse.

But the deal has been criticised by Mike Sabin, director of the P-education firm Methcon, who said it was a bad look for the Stellar Trust and Glaxo Smith Kline to get into bed together.

"Pharmaceutical companies such as Glaxo Smith Kline have been quite happy to expand to the point of doubling the product range of cold and flu medication containing pseudoephedrine knowing that there was a demand for the product," the former drug detective told the Star-Times.

"You'd have to ask yourself whether the telescope has gone to the blind eye in terms of accepting how much of the product, produced in only nine factories around the world, is actually being illegally diverted into P manufacture, or whether over the last 10 years a hell of a lot more people got the flu."

Sabin said while the decision by Glaxo Smith Kline was a "smart PR move", the flip side was that "when you are prepared to take funding where the perceptions may be dubious, it can also harm the credibility of the cause and the message, which would be my personal concern."

A source within the trust, who did not want to be named, said the deal was "like going to dinner with the devil".

Holmes and Glaxo Smith Kline did not respond to Star-Times inquiries and Stellar Trust chairman Alastair Burry hung up when asked to comment.

Stellar Trust's newly appointed chief executive, Mike Williams, defended the deal. "They are the innocent party here. They produce a legal medication that can be used for an illegal use. They are trying to demonstrate corporate citizenship. They don't want naming rights, this is genuine altruism."

Williams, a former Labour Party president, admitted he and his board predicted the sponsorship package would be controversial given the company's pills, on the black market, have enabled P cooks to grab the main ingredient for methamphetamine from their local chemist. "Glaxo Smith Kline feel an involvement but not a responsibility," Williams insisted. "Are you going to start blaming BP for a problem of petrol sniffing?"

In October Prime Minister John Key announced plans to crack down on P makers, which would see pseudoephedrine-based products available only with a doctor's prescription.

The sponsorship is the second controversy to engulf the charity in three months. In December, it was forced to defend one of its key backers who sent mail to hundreds of Kiwis containing a bag of rock salt attached to an invitation to smoke P. Some recipients called the move "disgusting".

The man behind the campaign, Creativebank's Marco Marinkovich, said he sent the package to reinforce Stellar Trust's message that the drug P was damaging New Zealand society and its people.

Marinkovich's partner, Annette Presley, had recently donated $10,000 to the trust and started attending advisory board meetings.

Williams said Presley was one of the "high net worth individuals" he had convinced to support the organisation.

Williams' role will be reviewed in March and his success will be primarily measured on how much money he had raised for the Stellar Trust.

Emails last year revealed the trust was not certain about his appointment, but believed it was the best way to ensure his friend Holmes would agree to sign on as the charity's ambassador.

"Clearly there are some risks with the Williams appointment. There may well be other candidates in the marketplace who may be capable of doing a better job as CEO and chief fundraiser, however if we go that route we will very likely not have Holmes's involvement," an August 2009 email says.

Williams last week rubbished the memo. "That was the opinion of whoever wrote the memo but it simply is not true. Paul would have been the trust's ambassador even if I didn't get the job, but I suppose you could say Paul felt more comfortable with me having the role."

Holmes has a personal connection to the havoc P can cause – his daughter Millie is battling P addiction and is before the courts on several drug-related charges.

The memo described Williams' salary as "significant" but he would not be drawn on what exactly that meant.

"I'm not telling you. What I will say is that I am paid a comfortable salary that is commensurate with my skills... it's all I need. I didn't work for the money in the Labour Party, I'm not motivated my money."

- © Fairfax NZ News