Smoking: Has it all been 'puffed' out of proportion?

Smoking cigarettes are apparently really really bad for you! Of course this isn't news to anybody. With anti-smoking campaigns bombarded at us and an outright ban on smoking in enclosed spaces, which annoyed many drinkers there is an ongoing debate concerning the nature and act of smokers.

On one camp, you have the anti-smokers, outraged that the selfishness of smokers affects their health through second-hand smoking and making the general area smelly. Then of course you have the proud smokers, who claim that by reducing smokers to a huddle outside in the cold it infringes their basic civil liberty.

However the debate and discussion goes much further than this, for instance I found on a forum on the BBC's website a poster who engages in a more political effect of the smoking ban,

"I may be being a little naive, but if smoking is banned outright, as some seem to wish, certainly the NHS may benifit from some reduced costs, but how will the government replace the lost millions of pounds it takes from smokers at the present time in the form of tobacco duty?. Will it be re-couped in higher Income tax, Fuel Duty, VAT etc. We must all be prepared for higher bills, because there is no one else to pay but ourselves."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/F1625154?thread=1854719

Approaching the concern of smoking with a hypothetical ban, the poster far more concerned with a question of taxation than civil liberty thhe poster highlights the fact that if a ban were to occur, naturally the government would ultimately 'recoup' its losses in terms of hieghtening already inflated taxes. Surely, it would be in the nations interest to tolerate smokers and smoking in favour of further taxes. Obviously we are all fully aware of the dangers, so is it not a personal choice to indulge in smoking. As i precariously drift between the balance of the smokers and anti-smokers I argue the debate around smoking is a trivial debate. The infrigment of civil liberty is a two edged sword, don't affect a non-smokers health, and don't patronise a smoker and his choice to smoke freely. However in the long run, I think we can collectively agree more wasted taxes are a much greater evil than 'cancer' sticks.