AS A former therapist who worked with addicts, I want to thank the Globe for the recent article on heroin addiction (“A life unraveling,’’ Page A1, Dec. 27). I also applaud HBO for its documentary about heroin use on Cape Cod.

This epidemic is something that needs to be addressed, and your article and the HBO film is focusing new attention on the danger.

Having worked in the field, I struggle with the idea of addiction as a disease. Diseases strike people arbitrarily. Heroin use is not arbitrary. If people use it regularly, they will become addicted. If they become addicted, they will do anything for their next fix — lie, cheat, steal, sell their bodies, destroy their families.

The idea that addiction is a disease creates the impression that some people may use heroin and not become addicted, just as some people smoke cigarettes and do not develop lung cancer. That’s hardly ever the case.

People thinking of experimenting with heroin need to understand that once they begin to use it will any frequency, they will become addicted. With heroin being readily available, inexpensive and easy to use, it is important for our children to understand the terrible harm they could bring on themselves.

Stephen Kohlhofer

Hampstead, N.H.