TIL: the smoking age was raised to 21
(media.scored.co)
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I have yet to see data that supports a net cost to the government/society for treating smoking related illnesses.
The Google says that smokers live 13 years less on average, which is 13 years less pension, Social Security, etc. Even assuming several years of end of life treatment, had these individuals not smoked, they likely also would have developed one of the numerous old age illnesses a few years later that are also expensive to treat.
Excessive taxation on tobacco is more the government's response to a price inelastic item. Simply put, they know they can tax the shit out of it and people will still buy it. In fact, if everyone stoped smoking it would jack up the government's budget pretty badly. Just look at places that have high gas taxes to fund roads- now that people are switching to electrics and hybrids they're buying a lot less gas and so the government is scrambling to find new ways to pay for it.
You are correct that exact figures are not available. You are right, taxes don't work that way. They are not directly earmarked for use on collection, rather they go into general revenue.
However efforts have been made to study the population wide effects of smoking. Smoking remains the #1 cause of preventable major illness.
From a public health perspective, it is cut and dried. Non smokers can work longer and be more productive, pay more tax and do more volunteer work. Raising taxes and preventing cheap imports forces smokers to pay closer to the actual costs of their addiction. In accounting terms they are required to internalize the costs of their decisions, rather than externalizing the costs to society as a whole.
Here is an article from 2019.
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/smoking-costs-australia-close-to-137-billion