Smokers are a financial burden? I don't think so. Actually, the taxes on tobacco products are the only thing that keeps public health from collapse. It not only pays for the damage caused by smoking, it also pays for most of the other stuff too.
The Economist had a similar article which was widely debated, but I did not have enough time for extensive gooling, so this will have to do.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Features/feature5.htm...