James “Jim” McHugh started smoking when he was a teenager and continued to do so for nearly five decades.
He tried quitting cold turkey. He tried chewing gum. He even tried hypnosis. By the time he found a prescription medicine that could help him, he was a very sick man.
In 2009, McHugh, who was an officer in two Miami-Dade police departments and had served in the U.S. Marines, died at age 66 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
