Tobacco has taken its toll on Haines resident Jim Hamp. His wife and mother both died of tobacco-related cancers, and Hamp is dying from emphysema.

A longtime charter and commercial fisherman, Hamp, 68, now has to wear a nasal cannula (a plastic hose that pumps oxygen from a tank into his nose) and rarely has the energy to visit is boat. Some days he barely has the energy to reach across the kitchen table. After smoking for 50 years, Hamp said he’d trade all the pleasure he got from cigarettes for one more good day of breathing. Now that he’s dying, Hamp wants to warn young smokers about what awaits them.

“Tobacco is just a matter of time. It doesn’t matter who you are,” Hamp said. “Why tempt how long? You’re playing with your life.”

Even though he sold cigarettes when he was growing up, Hamp said he didn’t start smoking until after he went to college. He said both of his parents smoked and it was the accepted thing to do. When he was in the military, more than 200 of the 244 soldiers in his company smoked. Within a year of starting, Hamp said he was smoking 1 1/2 packs a day.