PROHIBITION 2.0

Cost to the NHS In his speech, Sunak said: ‘Smoking places huge pressures on the NHS and costs our country £17 billion a year.’ This figure comes from the pressure group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and was cited in the Khan Review commissioned by the Department of Health in 2022. [...] The £10 billion (plus VAT) the government receives in tobacco duty is real money, whereas most of the £17 billion cost is made up of intangible costs and private costs to smokers. [...] This requires a more substantial debate about the relationship between the state and the individual than the government has allowed in its short public consultation. [...] This will hand the whole of the tobacco market to criminals and unleash the full consequences of prohibition. [...] The government is essentially opening a new front in the war on drugs and leaving future governments to deal with the consequences.