An actor relapses and dies with a needle in his arm. A wrong-way drunken driver kills a carload of people in California. A hospice nurse steals a cancer patient's morphine. A woman in treatment uses drugs again and gets kicked out onto the street.

No wonder we have a Grand Canyon-like chasm to span before doubters understand addiction as the illness it is and what all of us must do about it.

In the meantime, I'll tone down my argument that all of these people are "victims," too. The label only fans the flames of passionate rhetoric that isn't doing much to explain what addiction is and why addicts and alcoholics under the influence do what they do to themselves and others, who are victims, too.

"Sir, how dare you equate addiction with cancer, there is no comparison whatsoever," wrote a man whose wife died last year of breast cancer. "She didn't ask for it, didn't deserve it." Addicts and alcoholics, he wrote, "know what they're doing and can stop it before it is too late and if they don't, well then, they get what they ask for."

A police chief in a community east of Minneapolis told me: "There is no excuse for the carnage drunk drivers cause us. Come and see it here, you'll understand why I don't empathize with your argument."

An email from a mother begs: "How can I NOT hate my daughter right now for what's happened, what she's doing to herself and to us? WE ARE ALL DYING."

I get their sentiment. I get it every day in the emails, letters, phone calls and Facebook messages that rush at me like a runaway freight train, only faster now after my missive on the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. "His kids are the only victims," wrote one reader. "Not him."

Addiction's human toll trumps the sound science and medical research about an illness born of genetics, about the internal dynamics with origins in the brain, about the forces outside the body and, yes, about even the actions and behaviors by the substance user. It is an illness, a hideous malady, that makes no sense at all until it is explained on CT scans and traced on genes or witnessed in detox units. As is the case with heart disease, diabetes and cancer, nobody deserves to live or die with this illness, even when his own actions contribute to it. Not everyone who chooses to willfully use alcohol or other drugs becomes captive to addiction. But about 10 percent of those people do, and they didn't ask for it, either.

When we advocates say this in our bid to explain the power of addiction, too many people think we're simply trying to make ourselves out as blameless victims. We're not. To the contrary, owning our illness and being held responsible for the problems it causes not only gives us the opportunity to stop being sick but also sets us up to stay healthy. Nobody can get me to stop drinking or taking drugs until I can see that the choices that I made or that were made for me under the influence are unacceptable because they violate the law, rupture society's expectations and bend to the breaking point the framework of my most important relationships. That I have an illness doesn't excuse any of this. It does explain why I do what I know I shouldn't and why I cannot stop doing it on my own. Then I can see that my problem has a solution, as long as I make the effort to change. And ask for help.

Postscript: A few weeks ago, I wrote about Peggy P., who died from addiction despite her valiant efforts and those of her family to overcome her illness. It turns out that she had not been dead for 30 days when her body was found in her apartment. In fact, her family had been in contact with her until about 10 days before she disappeared. The tragedy of her loss in spite of her family's best efforts to stay connected is a potent reminder of the power of this illness and the powerlessness at times of the people who care.

William Moyers is the vice president of public affairs and community relations for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and the author of "Broken," his best-selling memoirs. His book "Now What? An Insider's Guide to Addiction and Recovery" was published last year. Please send your questions to William Moyers at [email protected]. To find out more about William Moyers and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.