I've had the same thoughts, drainedwife. Especially since I've had cancer myself, and have lost a mom and brother to cancer, I have a hard time accepting that addiction is a disease. But, those are probably my own hang ups- I hear "Disease," and think, "Cancer." I hear "Addiction," and think, "Choices."
I hope I'm not coming across as unempathetic to people who suffer from addiction, because I do believe as stated above that it's the addiction that takes over and a person does become powerless (just as a person with cancer), until they are lucky enough to get the proper treatment to overcome the addiction and then make the choices to keep themselves clean.