[user104658]

I just read that of an £8 pack of cigarettes, less than £1.50 is the actual cost of the product. Something like 85% is tobacco tax + VAT! Heh.

My dad smoked 2 packs a day for 40 years. Even adjusting for increasing prices and taxation, I reckon he must have paid something like £90,000 in cig tax. That's actually insane .

He quit about 5 years ago, because he realised that he could afford to retire early (57) if he quit smoking. He was literally working to be able to afford cigarettes.