I am not convinced about the “excessive” cost to the NHS, and to the nation as a whole, that smoking (and gluttony) incurs. And for four reasons:
First, if all those people dying of smoking related diseases (and Big Macs) hadn’t smoked, they would live longer, end up requiring care and would die of other things, all incurring costs that would otherwise have not been incurred, and that should all therefore be deducted from the costs of treating the smoking (and gluttony) related diseases.
Second, tobacco is a heavily taxed product and brings in billions of tax revenue every year. So, if nobody smoked, that revenue would also need deducting from the costs of treating the smoking related diseases.
Third, while smokers (and gluttons) are alive, they still pay into pension funds and National Insurance, and because they die early, the DWP and the pension industry saves huge amounts of pension money they would otherwise have to pay out if those people lived “full term”.
And fourth, they keep the population down, thus reducing the burden on the nation’s resources.
Only by deducting all of the above costs, from the costs of treating the smoking (and gluttony) related diseases can we get the actual cost to the nation that smoking (and gluttony) incurs.
I think there’s an argument for actually encouraging smoking. Tax it to the hilt, allow unbridled advertising, but retain the ban in public places for the sake of those of us who don’t smoke. That way more people would die before requiring long term care, and before collecting their pensions, leaving more for the rest of us. It’s all in accordance with Darwinian survival of the fittest. In the case of smoking, those with the fittest minds.