Belly sometimes you do get things very wrong.

Smokers have been paying huge taxes for decades. I remember seeing figures many years & tax increases ago showing 72% of the cost of a cigarette was tax. Smokers have paid so much tax that they can never get it all back with any amount of medical care.

That is fine by me. I have no trouble taxing the hell out of pleasures, including grog, gambling, boating & motoring, we have to get the money people want spent from somewhere, & better to tax these things rather than essentials.

However, I have always been offended in the pity for illegal drug users, & the hate directed at smokers. From what I have seen, nicotine is a harder addiction to kick than most. I know a couple of ex smokers who a decade later are still on nicotine patches or gum. I gather this "treatment" is about as expensive as the smoking, but we offer no help.

With the poor smoker, we tax the hell out of them, denigrate them, then spend their taxes treating illegal drug users, giving them no help. Typical bleeding heart technique

However it is very wrong to tax the hell out of some consumers, then claim they are a liability, I think the fool smokers are suffering enough these days, without being wrongly denigrated as a community expense.

Yep, that's the elephant in the room that no-one really wants to address, Hasbeen.

>>Smokers have paid so much tax that they can never get it all back with any amount of medical care.<<

That blows the "it costs us all" argument completely out of the water.

>>...via our health system unfairly costs the majority.<<

Belly is repeating the mantra of the control freaks, who are offering up a completely spurious argument based on the cost of treating lung cancer sufferers. It is an argument that ignores both the revenue from smokers, and the fact that they generally pop their clogs ahead of the pack, thus lowering the financial burden of end-of-life care. Which, by the way, is huge, and getting bigger by the day.

I think pelican has the answer:

>>Perhaps we should ban driving cars. The costs to the health system are enormous.<<

Pelican is absolutely right, of course. If the objective is to reduce the cost of our health system, this is an excellent place to start.

Unfortunately, s/he is under the impression s/he is being sarcastic.

>>Yes I am being sarcastic.<<

We all know that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. It isn't often, though, that we see it deployed quite so self-destructively.

Self-destructively. It made the point I thought... but each to his/her own method.

Hasbeen,

I wanted my parents to give up smoking. Why? Because I really care for them. I didn't hate them.

It unfortunately took my father to have a heart attack to give up smoking, but I didn't mind - at least he was still alive.

When I see people smoking out in public I feel very sorry for them, knowing they are using a toxic product that is killing their body.

<<..When I see people smoking out in public I feel very sorry for them, knowing they are using a toxic product that is killing their body...>>get over yourself.

i see drunks spewing blood guts and i feel ill
BUT I GOT OVER IT.

i see the drunks carryiNG THEIR CARtons..OF BOOZE
AND SEE..MY TAXES PAYING FOR THEIR 'NEW LIVERS'

I HEAR MY MATES..saying im being cared for by THEIR MONEy
as NEAR AS I Can tell..INCLUDING GST STATE ANd federal taxes
COMES TO 16/BILLIon//plus the extra 5 billion=21 billion..JUST ADDING IN THE FEDERAL INCREASES..NOT STATE/GST..

http://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-13-taxation/13-6-revenue-from-tobacco-taxes-in-australia

but the INFO IS KEePS DIVIDED..CAUSE THEY NEED IT LOOK LIKE ONLY 5 BILLION[THE LATest tax hike]

regardless we got a kid scared out of his wits hounding his parents[just like my kids hounded me for years..LIttle realisING THEIR TOOLS FOR GOVT TO REDirect..moneY For the kids into revenue for muggins in govt..to lie.

HEART ATTacks are bought on by stress
so go ride your father..im sick of mindless children telling me what THEY..want me to do..[YOUR MAKING ME ANGRY..THINK..WHY?]..

BELLY STOP DRINKING
it rots ya brain..and im worried about your drinking

BUT I WILL HELP YOU..
BY DOUBLING THE PRICE OF YOUR TIPPLE..BECAUSE YOU DRUNKS..CANT Empathize...BUT I CAN..YOU POOR HELPLESS VICTIM..OF DEMON DRINK

LOL Drunks..ya just gotta love the way they 'care'
..ITS..FOR YOUR OWN GOOD MATE..YOU WONT MISS IT.

cancer deaths is 9000
[one quarter of which is smokers]
2000?..

yET..ONE THIRD OF US SMOKE
the rest [MAJORITY]..are non smokers

so smoking 'prevents many cancers

the numbers cant lie

those one in four
is the same ratio
as the 3/4..who simply CANT Sustain cancer..[ie are resistant].

ie smoking makes no difference..!
[or at woprst reduces cancer

..Forty years ago President Richard Nixon
declared a "war on cancer". [SOUND FAMILIAR?

Yet in spite of $100bn (£60bn) of taxpayer-funded research
in the US alone,..

the cancer mortality rate remains little changed.

Dozens of much-hyped "cures"
developed by drug companies are either useless
or have marginal effect*.

but there is great..$$$
in building buildings

dont forget to note the cancer cures i posted previously
see the ban smoking topic link..previous posts
that cost less than 5 bucks..noted on lasts nights q&a
simon crean...dolling out more cream

to wit
auberry/woodonga getting 65 million for a..
...CANCER CLINIC

seems townsville got one[41 mil]
and we want one too

is anyone seeing a pattern here?
our smoking tax building...BUILDINGS

read on about this global SCAM
realize the why of these wars on smokers

[oh and china has just declared its first shot against
the one third chines that smoke..too]

Cancer: The beat of an ancient drum?
By: malterwitty
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/25/cancer-evolution-ancient-toolkit-genes