['Summary', 'In', 'recent', 'testimony', 'the', 'Congressional', 'Office', 'of', 'Technology', 'Assessment', '(OTA)', 'offered', 'an', 'update', 'of', 'its', '1985', 'estimated', '"cost"', 'of', 'smoking.', 'This', 'update', 'is', 'based', 'on', 'a', 'computer', 'software', 'program', 'known', 'generally', 'as', 'SAMMEC', '(Smoking', 'Attributable', 'Mortality,', 'Morbidity,', 'and', 'Economic', 'Costs).', 'With', 'the', 'application', 'of', 'SAMMEC,', 'OTA', 'estimated', 'that', 'the', '1990', '“costs"', 'of', 'smoking', 'were', '$68', 'billion', 'in', 'total,', 'comprised', 'of', '$47.2', 'billion', 'in', '“indirect', 'costs"', 'and', '$20.8', 'billion', 'in', '"direct', 'costs."', 'Unfortunately,', 'these', 'SAMMEC', 'based', 'estimates,', 'like', 'the', 'earlier', '1985', 'estimates,', 'are', 'faulty', 'and', 'misleading.', 'First,', 'for', 'the', '“indirect', 'costs"', 'of', 'smoking,', 'OTA', 'continues', 'to', 'labor', 'under', 'the', 'erroneous', 'idea', 'that', 'such', 'items', 'as', 'lost', 'wages', 'constitute', 'social,', 'or', 'public', '“costs,"', 'rather', 'than', 'individual', 'or', 'private', '“costs,"', 'to', 'the', 'extent', 'that', 'such', 'costs', 'could', 'be', 'shown', 'to', 'exist.', 'As', 'many', 'researchers', 'in', 'this', 'area', 'have', 'recognized,', '“indirect', 'costs"', 'are', 'not', 'relevant', 'in', 'Second,', 'a', 'careful', 'review', 'of', 'the', 'OTA', 'and', 'SAMMEC', 'methodology', 'reveals', 'that', 'smbkers', 'appear', 'not', 'to', 'impose', 'any', 'extra', 'costs', 'on', 'publicly', 'provided', 'health', 'care', 'programs.', 'Indeed,', 'if', 'anything,', 'such', 'a', 'review', 'suggests', 'that', 'smokers', 'more', 'than', 'pay', 'their', 'own', 'way', 'in-terms', 'of', 'social', 'and', 'health', 'care', 'programs.', '|', 'When', 'properly', 'analyzed,', 'the', '“social', 'costs"', 'of', 'smoking', 'are', 'determined', 'to', 'be', 'zero.', 'As', 'calculations', 'of', 'the', 'alleged', '“social', 'costs"', 'of', 'smoking.', 'such,', 'the', 'OTA', 'testimony', 'and', 'methodology', 'fail', 'to', 'provide', 'support', 'for', 'an', 'increased', 'excise', 'tax', 'on', 'cigarettes.', '66£8', '81€1S']