Smoking , is it the greatest con of all time

I have just been invited to appear on BBC local radio again.. I don't know why I get so exited as I have done it many times before, I guess I secretly hanker after a career as a presenter. I have loved and listened to radio all my life. I was a member of the generation that listened to radio Caroline under the bed sheets, I can even remember the unique smell that came from the circuitry of my red leatherette radio as it warmed up.
The reason I was invited is that I have, I think, a unique view of the smoking habit.
Basically it is easy to quit but everyone out there who claims it is hard either has a vested interest in maintaining the myth, are ignorant of the facts or have been seduced by the prevailing belief system.
As a professional coach and trainer of NLP the way people construct their beliefs (or have them constructed) facinates me. Beliefs drive everything we do (or don't do) they can support us or restrict us we even have beliefs about beliefs.
Beliefs can be learned and confirmed through life experience, culturally ingrained, things like religion, accepted as truth based on trust or rejected as false based on mistrust. Wars are fought and lives are taken based on them.

What does all of this have to do with smoking?
Consider this. How do you really know that smoking is so hard to give up?Any one who has tried and failed were already handicapped by the belief that it would be too hard, failure simply confirms the "truth".
Anyone who has given up is unlikey to admit that it was easy as they might be written of as mad or arrogant (as an ex smoker I have been accused of both).
So who is perpetuating the myth and why?

Tobacco companies? Obvious, they want to keep you hooked.
Nicotine replacement manufacturers. Who would buy their, very expensive, cigarette alternative if people believed quitting was easy. It wouldn't suprise me if the tobacco industry owned the nicotene replacement industry. After all its not (alledgedly) the nicotine that's addicitive its the habit!
Think about anyone that promotes smoking as tough to quit, then question either their motivation for perpetuating the myth or their qualification to have a view and you might surprise yourself.
If we woke up to a world where everyone believed that smoking was a doddle to give up who would the winners and loser be?
Why not challenge me. Let me know who you think is telling the truth about smoking (being hard to quit) and I will offer a reason or motivation for their thinking.