Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died Feb. 2. His body was found with a needle stuck in his arm and at least 65 bags of heroin in his apartment. He left behind three children, ages 10, 7 and 5.

Hoffman was an admitted addict, but he had been clean for 23 years before a relapse sent him to a detox center in 2013. His death is a reminder of how horrific drug addiction can be, and how relentlessly it can keep users in its grip.

“Phil Hoffman and I had two things in common. We were both fathers of young children, and we were both recovering drug addicts,” wrote Academy Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin in Time. He says that, while filming Charlie Wilson’s War, the two often would slip off together and have “mini AA meetings.” He quoted Hoffman as saying, “If one of us dies of an overdose, probably 10 people who were about to won’t.” Their sad and well-circulated stories, in other words, might keep some people alive and clean. Sorkin continues…

“So it’s in that spirit that I’d like to say this: Phil Hoffman, this kind, decent, magnificent, thunderous actor, who was never outwardly ‘right’ for any role but who completely dominated the real estate upon which every one of his characters walked, did not die from an overdose of heroin—he died from heroin. We should stop implying that if he’d just taken the proper amount then everything would have been fine.” (ABC News, Time)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife Wendy and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.