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23-12-2014 2:42 PM
The government's own figure on cost to NHS of smoking related diseases is between £1.4 and 1.5 billion.
http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB11454/smok-eng-2013-rep.pdf
Other research estimates it to be much higher, depending on which report one reads, anything upto £5 billion.
One figure that cannot be disputed is that tax revenue from tobacco products is currently over £12 billion pa and rising every year.
http://www.the-tma.org.uk/tma-publications-research/facts-figures/tax-revenue-from-tobacco/
Whatever our views on the subject, it's not very fair to say smokers are a drain on NHS resources, they are clearly self-funding.
It could be argued that they help to subsidise the non-smokers.