For without the habit, the addiction, tobacco has no power of its own. It is as harmless and insignificant as any simple garden variety weed. It is the internal perception we hold about the drug that makes it so dangerous.
Smoking is a habit.
Habits are created by repetitious behavior, and are built, assembled if you will, over a period of time. Removing a program from a computer is a simple, mechanical process. Removing a habit from a human being is not really as simple, but is still a mechanical process. Each requires a process of steps, which, taken one at a time in order, with care and commitment, will achieve the desired result. When one learns to smoke, they must overcome the body's natural resistance to breathing a toxic substance, with only the ardent desire to overcome the body's own safeguards to keep the process going.