Florida's economy takes $20B annual hit from smokers, report finds

Smoking costs Florida's economy more than $20 billion a year, or nearly $7,000 per smoker, according to a report released Thursday by The Florida Institute for Smoking Cessation.

[Gloom and Doom]

Nothing but BS. The taxes on tobacco take in double that.

[Yomomma]

What a crock!
Illegal alien criminals cost us more than smokers ever did, and fat people cost far more in health costs etc. as well.

[ut oh]

What you need to do right now, if you're a smoker, is to price the monthly cost of:
1. albuterol (lungs)
2. Flovent (lungs)
3. Serovent (lungs)
4. Advair Diskus (lungs)
5. furosemide (diuretic for the congestive heart failure)
6. potassium supplements (potassium is flushed away by the furosemide)
7. prednisone (opens up lungs but suppresses insulin production, turning you into diabetic)
8. insulin (to replace that which your pancreas no longer makes)
9. Oxygen tanks
10. Oxygen refills
11. Oxygen concentrator rental (wait until you hear how loud that thing sounds at night)
12. Depends (for the 2-second warning that you have to pee, if you can't get to a toilet)

Otherwise, be prepared to be within 10 feet of a toilet as the furosemide takes effect. You'll be peeing for hours. It's one thing to be tethered to an oxygen tank. Try enjoy an evening out with your family when you get no warning before having to pee.

Examine as well the costs whether you have health insurance or not. Also, you should start paying now for long-term health care so that your debilitating disease won't eat away at all your life savings--nursing homes can run $3,000 or more a month. This doesn't include the cost of medications.

And you thought the only cost to you was the $4,500 a year for 2 packs a day bought in New Jersey.

[Quit Smoking]

I smoked for over 20 years and am all for smokers rights. Larger people develop diabetes and that can be very expensive as well.

I quit smoking over 2 years ago and it's the best thing I ever did. I quit at a place in Lake Mary calling Healing Laser Clinics. It was the easiest way to quit smoking. Their site is www.healinglaserclinics.com
Hope this helps somebody.