"Sometimes the precipitating factor for treatment is they have court cases looming over them.
"There are solo mothers, there are businessmen, there are people in gangs. It just crosses the range."
Mr Benton said he would be surprised if there weren't parties happening in Tauranga where white-collar workers were using the drug recreationally.
And he expected there would be "several" Millie Holmes in Tauranga - young women from privileged backgrounds and good families who were hooked on P.
"It crosses a range of society - addiction in general does, and methamphetamine is no different to that. There would appear to be a market among [white collar workers].
"A lot of people who are actually using it or even involved in the manufacture, you might not put them down as criminals on the bare face of it, because they don't necessarily have a criminal record."
The typical age group treated at Hanmer for P addiction was 25-45, although the centre had also treated those as young as 18 - the minimum age - and as old as 50-plus. Men and women were equally affected.
Methamphetamine use had been steady in the Bay in the last few years, and was "highly addictive and highly destructive", Mr Benton said.
"Alcohol can probably take 10 to 15 years for addiction to create sufficient side effects to force people to look at what it's doing to them.
"With P, you can reach that within a month to a year or so. It's a very fast-acting drug.
"It pulls them in very quickly. In order to meet that habit they have got to resort to crime."
Mr Benton had seen people lose businesses, family homes and relationships due to addiction.
New Zealand Drug Detection Agency chief executive Kirk Hardy, a former police detective in the Auckland drug squad, said P wasn't going anywhere.
The agency mainly tested workers using heavy machinery due to safety issues. But if random workplace drug testing was carried out on white-collar workers there was "no doubt" it would catch people.
"It crosses every industry sector and every community. We are never ever going to stop the drug and alcohol issue.
"I don't think you are ever going to get rid of P, or any drug."
Mr Hardy said many of the workers who tested positive for P appeared to be functioning and were holding down a job.
"When someone tests positive for P, we have had the odd comments when the manager has turned around and said 'you have taken out our best worker'.
"They are your best worker for a reason - they are on a stimulant. It's going to make them appear to be working hard but not necessarily safely - they are not thinking straight, cutting corners."
And after the drug wore off - two days after they had taken the drug - there was the danger of "rebound fatigue".
"Their motor skills can be extremely slow, they are tired, heavily fatigued. Fatigue is another contributing factor to risk."
Tauranga Get Smart Drugs and Alcohol Services manager Stuart Caldwell said the service was for young people aged 12 to 18.
He estimated about 5-10 per cent of clients were seen because they were using the drug.
The service dealt with about 80 young people a month. Staff said they tended to be from lower to middle class families.
But Mr Caldwell said P was not the "drug of choice" for the age group - it was alcohol.
Drug educator Pat Buckley said there were definitely teens in Tauranga taking the drug - he knew of one boy who started dealing at the age of 15.
The most recent police statistics showed that methamphetamine offending in the Western Bay had risen by 22.5 per cent in a year.
Tauranga City Council's hazardous substances team leader Jack Travis said last week alone three houses had come to the council's attention needing specialist cleaning because of P contamination.
Last year, there was only one case. In 2010 there were four, and in 2009 there were seven.
