Letter: No smoke without taxes - the case against prohibition

Sir: The estimated revenue from tobacco sales in the current financial year is pounds 9.5bn. For the same period, the Health Education Authority estimates the cost of treating "smoking-related illnesses" at pounds 345m. A recent article in your newspaper stated that the budget for research into all forms of cancer was pounds l5m a year.

Smokers are subsidising non-smokers to the tune of rather over pounds 9bn a year. One wonders just how many times over we are expected to pay for medical treatment.

DAVID J ANDERSON

Wakefield, West Yorkshire