addiction healthcare international africa house believes ghanas ban smoking public
The argument that states will save money due to less people smoking based upon healthcare costs from treating smoking related diseases is over-simplistic. While smoking does cause medical costs, taxation can counterbalance this – in 2009, the South African government gained 9 billion Rand (€620 million) from excise duties on tobacco 1 . Paradoxically, less people smoking could lead to less money for other projects. Indeed, some countries in Europe raise the amount of health expenditure it causes from tobacco taxation 2 .  1 American Cancer Society, “Tobacco tax success story: South Africa”, tobaccofreekids.org, October 2012,   2 BBC News, “Smoking disease costs NHS £5Bn”, BBC News, 2009,