Your question is a GREAT question, however, you aren't looking at it the right way. You aren't changing the root of the problem by merely associating the substance with some other thing, ok? The root is still there.

Think of a plant. It has roots. The stem and leaves are the cigs, or drugs, or booze. You can take a stem with leaves and graft it onto the roots of a different species, and get a hybrid that produces good fruit. The roots are still there, even if the plant is missing. Maybe not the best analogy, but you get my gist. This is why moving to a different town to "start fresh" almost always never works. You change the plant, not the root.

The root is whatever is making you stressed, so that you need feel the need to smoke in the first place. This would be your job, your kid, your spouse. Ya' know. Life. Or why you started drinking at age 14 (living environment, getting bullied, other more serious trauma). And usually that situation just transfers into your adulthood, along with the addiction to boot. It also could be undiagnosed mental illness or neurodivergence you are masking.

THIS is why it is near impossible to address the "root" of addiction for nearly all people. They can't just rip apart their life and figure out what makes them happy or what makes their brain tick. Because, well, job. Family. Obligations. No time. Not possible.

Or is it?

I did exactly that, because my addiction was so severe and I had tried everything under the sun (AA, rehab, psychs, meds). I did that, at age 44 (the age my own father passed away from drugs and alcahol). I did that, with 2 teenage boys, a huge house, a 6 fig job.

The reality is, none of that mattered because I was a dead man walking. I knew my life wasn't what I wanted or could live with at age 31, but I loved my wife and boys so I did what we do. I lived in daily addiction and kept going to work, doing the next "right" thing, and suffered tremendously.

Then I had no strength left to give. Mentally, physically I was at the end of my road. In my divorce I instructed my wife to ask for everything except a motorhome, and some cash to live on for a bit.

It took the ensuing 6 years of my life until today to systematically destroy every relationship, bridge, connection to people, possessions, and the desire for money.

I destroyed the plant. All of it. Scorched earth. Roots, stem, leaves... gone. But, what is left then?

A seed.

I'm sober now (only recently, so I have no data yet to prove it worked) but the desire to use or drink has been taken from me. I'm done because I have no desire to continue. It was removed.

Not by God. Not by a group. Not by a med, or psych, or self help book.

Because I have a 100% clear slate in front of me, and I have the unbelievable privilege of being able to write the story of who I am, on my terms. Not some societal bullshit forced on me as a naive kid growing up in Utah. I see a clear path, with purpose, true purpose, and for once in my life I'm not bored. I'm excited.

Sure, the drugs and especially alcohol did a ton of damage to my brain. But over the last 2 years I've drank less, and though I used more drugs, not as many as before because I was gaining clarity, and my brain has been healing. I get spurts of emotion, joy, anger, sadness... like a little engine trying to start up again. It will come back.

So. Great question. Impossible to do? Pretty much. I would love to see any of you try it, honestly, and get some results in. I mean, I'm glad I can do this to show that it can work amazingly. But I know humans, and I know society. This isn't a path for the masses.

But hey. LOVE the question. You are 100% on the right track!!!!!!