It's called a disease, treated like a disease and considered a disease by any medical practitioner worth his salt. Doesn't matter what you personally believe.

addiction əˈdɪkʃ(ə)n/ noun noun: addiction; plural noun: addictions the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance or activity. "he committed the offence to finance his drug addiction" synonyms:dependency, dependence, craving,habit, weakness, compulsion, fixation,enslavement informalmonkey; informaljones "he blamed Murray for his heroin addiction" ________________________________ Hmmm no mention of disease in the definition, looks like you are wrong. People who get addicted to drugs are weak minded fools and the addicts who steal to fund their habits are sub-human scum and should be treated as such. None of that making excuses enabling nonsense