Hi VVVQV, From the ASH Website:
QUOTE
Why tobacco taxes should be high and continue to increase - Clive Bates, Director, Action on Smoking and Health, London
It is true that NHS costs are lower than tobacco tax revenues. Tobacco taxation amounts to £10.5 billion per year whereas a figure for NHS spending on tobacco related disease is £1.7 billion. But so what? The comparison is a false one. Tobacco tax is not and never has been a down payment on the cost dealing with ill health caused by smoking.
UNQUOTE
To be fair, he goes on to say there are all sorts of other hidden costs of smoking. I don't smoke btw. I used to, but quit about two years ago. I now hate the smell, welcome the ban on indoor smoking and am generally a born-again non-smoking intolerant of tobacco type.
But.... I do sometimes wonder if we haven't gone too far down the "here's a big stick and I'm going to enjoy self-righteously beating you with it - because it's all your own fault so I feel justified in criticising you" thing with smokers. I also think it's a symptom of an unhealthy decrease in our tolerance of each other generally. Or summink I dunno.