Alcohol, Sugar And Tobacco

Sugar is very abundant and as such is very cheap.

For now anyway, until the use of land to grow this feedstock is compromised. Prices go up as the potential is exploited. So predictable. I have the code-book that translates 'greed talk'. The same book that encapsulates the ethics of capitalism.

Battle in Seattle

It is, therefore, simple economics that fermented sugar provides a very cheap synthesis of a simple compound (ethyl alcohol, ethanol) that can 'make' enormous amounts of revenue (money) through taxation. Ethanol has a dual function, one of which is ethanol fuel. The other is ethanol not consumed by engines, but humans.

Biofuels, Tax Revenue And GM

For a government to suggest concern over health issues is cynicism to the extreme. The smoker (or drinker) pays for treatment out of smokers' or drinkers' taxes funding the NHS. That the cost is to the NHS is really a MASSIVE red herring. The cost is borne by the taxpayer since the NHS is paid for by the taxpayer. Treatment for smoking or drink related problems is paid for out of smokers' or drinkers' taxes funding the NHS. However, more is contributed than is paid out providing treatment. The non-smoker and non-drinker pays for it as well and the argument mimics childless people funding the education and healthcare of someone else's children.

The HUGE revenue defines the inappropriateness of even considering stamping it out

The issue most anti-smoking people have is the pollution of the local breathable atmosphere. Personally, I care not if smokers want to kill themselves. That's their choice, except for that barbed hook called nicotine. (important link) The same hook that firmly connects tax and cigarettes to human users.

If people drink too much then so what? The issue here is that government makes the money and the citizens of primarily that country have to deal with the problems. It's a bonus for a control freak government by 'proving' that a state-controlled policing 'service' is needed to keep

ALL

of its citizens controlled. Effectively in a nationwide open prison.