Addiction is a disease that responds best to treatment by professionals who know what they are doing. Expecting hardcore addicts to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and “snap out of it” is like asking a cancer sufferer to snap out of it. “But I know people who did it” does not invalidate this. Good for them, but just because some people have managed to do it by themselves does not mean that others do not need help.
It is true that addiction can come as a consequence of bad choices. While Corinthians 10:13 teaches us that “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able,” the scriptures also teach that when we make wrong choices, we lose agency. Good choices lead to freedom, while bad choices lead to captivity. With chronic sin, the devil’s power over us increases, up until we reach the point where the adversary has full power over us.
But it doesn’t matter if someone had a hand in building their own prison; it does not diminish the intrinsic value of their souls in God’s eyes, and does not make them any less worthy of God’s love or mercy.
I think there is a tendency for people to more heavily condemn “highly visible” sins, while the equally dangerous, but somewhat less quantifiable or obvious sins like pride, wrath, or avarice, get less condemnation. Like the Pharisees, sometimes people miss the point completely. Is a drug addict or alcoholic more sinful than one who does not forgive? One who does not love his neighbor? Or one who is prideful? I myself do not know the answer, but I do know that it is not for me to judge.
I am proud of my sobriety. I have been sober for many years now and I intend to remain sober until the day I die. I never want to be a slave to anything, to any substance, ever again. But whenever I see a brother or sister suffering from addiction, I always think, “there but for the grace of God go I.”
We are all a few wrong choices away from being completely powerless. The Atonement of Christ makes it possible for those who are powerless to help themselves, but the help and love of their human brothers and sisters goes a long way too.