I'm not too sure I understand your meaning here. It's the nicotine within the plant that's "addictive," not the plant itself. And I don't buy the notion of addiction generally. A person decides for himself whether the benefit he gets from an action is worth whatever it costs and behaves accordingly. That doesn't mean he's being forced to perform the behavior. You might hear a long-time smoker say, "I'd like to quit, but I just can't." Well, that's utter bull. What's he's really saying is that the temptation and pleasure he derives from smoking are worth more than whatever bad effects might arise in the future as a consequence, or, that the bad effects he's experiencing now are not sufficiently bad to counterweigh the pleasure.
That's why they say that an alcoholic has to hit rock-bottom before he'll make a serious effort to give up drinking. And it's the same, in my opinion, for every other thing they call "addiction."
Maybe my phraseology was off, but the point I was making is that if nicotine is so "addictive" why are people not addicted to nicotine after consuming tomatoes or eggplants which also contain nicotine? Why is it that people only claim "nicotine" is addictive when consumed through the use of tobacco.....but so many seems to think it is benign in other forms, particularly the pharmaceutical company products?????
I'm not singling you out specifically, as I pretty much agree with everything else you say regarding "habit" visa vis "addiction."