I have been sober for 26 years. The Republicans’ attacks on Hunter Biden’s sobriety are a warning to me.

The charges against Hunter Biden were dismissed on Friday. The case against him involves three federal charges related to possession of a weapon while under the influence of drugs. The aggravated weapons charge stems from allegations that Biden lied about his sobriety on a gun purchase form. He has pleaded not guilty in a trial that marks the culmination of years of investigations into the president’s youngest son led by a number of pro-Donald Trump Republicans.

During the trial, the prosecution presented the jury with audio recordings from Biden’s memoir, Beautiful Things, in which he describes his struggle with addiction. This was intended to serve as evidence that Biden was not sober at the time of the gun purchase. The prosecution also presented this text message exchange between Biden and his then-girlfriend Zoe Kestan: “I may be sober, but I will always be an addict. And the addict is just as much me as the me you love to hate.”

To someone who isn’t particularly well-versed in addiction, this might seem like something nefarious, like some kind of admission on Biden’s part. But anyone who has experience with addiction knows it’s not that simple.

I have been sober for 26 years and am a member of the Alcoholics Anonymous program, and we are taught to take our sobriety as a day-by-day thing. We are taught the fundamental belief that despite our sobriety, we will always be addicts at heart. We will never be cured of our addiction. I am given daily respite from the disease of alcoholism, one day at a time. I had my first drink at 3 and my last (I hope) at 19. Personal details of addiction vary; Biden’s struggle with addiction is very typical. I have never had a legal drink (as I was too young to do so). Many alcoholics struggle with getting sober, and some people have to try and get back to it before they “make it.” Many of them eventually make it.

This is not an attempt to prove innocence or guilt based on Biden’s actions; but the basis and nature of the prosecution’s argument is problematic, because Biden’s talk of his “bloodhound” instinct in seeking crack, his drug of choice, shows that he is suffering from the disease of addiction – not that he is guilty or that his actions were nefarious. I hope the jury will be able to keep this in mind as it deliberates Biden’s fate in the coming days or weeks.

Biden and I are not the only addicts. About 16% of Americans (but probably more) struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. That’s about 48 million people.

Jeanine Pirro, co-host of Fox News’ “The Five,” reportedly complained about “eight jurors who had a family history of drug or alcohol problems or someone who died from alcohol or addiction. So they picked a jury that was compassionate.” Aaron Blake of the Washington Post pointed out that “8 out of 12 jurors is 66%. That’s exactly the population.”

And therein lies the problem with the Republicans’ ongoing attack on Biden: appointing jurors with varying degrees of addiction histories does not make a jury “sympathetic.” It makes them informed. Addiction is a disease. People who struggle with addiction are sick, not bad. Large swathes of the country are afflicted by alcohol and drug addiction, affecting not only themselves but their family members and people even remotely connected to them—the addict’s parents and grandparents and children and brothers and sisters and acquaintances. Alcoholism and drug addiction are a disease with long-lasting repercussions, a disease that permeates our society in countless ways.

Also on Fox News, host Jesse Watters suggested that President Joe Biden is a bad father and that, as a father, he is to blame for Hunter Biden’s drug problems. Shaming addicts and their families has long been a cliche. But the more we learn about substance abuse, the more we also know that genetics can be difficult, even impossible, to combat. For my part, I firmly believe I was born an alcoholic. My mother was an alcoholic. My grandmother was an alcoholic. My body simply processed alcohol differently than my peers. Some nights I could have 10 or 15 drinks and still appear completely sober; other nights, after one or two drinks, I would completely black out and lose hours of the night.

Watters made another bold statement: “The Trump kids don’t do drugs, they don’t even smoke cigarettes. They’re part of the family business, they have beautiful families.” That may or may not be true – but we know that Trump’s niece Mary Trump wrote about her father losing his battle with alcoholism. That would mean that both the Biden family and the Trump family have some genetic predisposition to alcoholism, just like my family and so many others.

Republicans attacking Hunter Biden in this way for his addiction is a dangerous game. More people than you think are affected by alcoholism and addiction, and shaming the addict’s family is neither productive nor beneficial.

For years, Republicans have used images of Hunter Biden on crack to indict his father. But when I see these images, I see a warning.

I’ve been sober for 26 years, but I suffer from the same addiction as Hunter Biden. Being sober doesn’t make me a better person than people who indulge in their addictions. It just makes me happier than them.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com.