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Government permits the sale of cigarrettes because it wants more tax money. Frankly, in any modern case (ie: since the link was proven) government should be a defendant along with big tobacco, not a plaintiff.
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I don't believe this is true. I think gov't allows cigarettes simply b/c it would be too hard to outlaw something so ingrained in society. If anyone took the time to do some basic math they would see there is NO WAY the gov't comes out ahead on cigarettes unless the is almost no direct health care cost. For example, using figures I largely made up but don't have time to verify:
Population of Canada: 32 million
Smoking Rate: 25%
Avg # of pack/day of smokers: 1
Tax revenue per pack: $5
Total tax revenue: $40 million
Now I know I don't have actual #'s for these, but I doubt I'm far off. Anybody want to make the argument that smoking costs less than $40million per year in direct health costs for gov't?