I am a smoker - and get hammered by the UK Government in tax.
As already stated here, if tobcco is _that_ serious, ban it. But then that will cause a black market underground whereby the smokers still smoke, but the tax man gets nothing.
Also, cynical as it may sound, the Governments think that by keeping people alive longer results in more tax, as like here in the UK, the retirement age keeps getting pushed up to longer and longer lifetime ages - luckily I am 55 now, and my retriement age is now 66 (it was 65 when I first started working 39 years ao). People of 20 years old will have to work until the age of 75+ before they will be able to retire.
The reason?
TAX.