The Story of Tim DaGiau

May 10, 2011

Tim DaGiau will be the first to admit he smokes pot – but it’s not a casual joint to help him bet­ter enjoy Pink Floyd.

It’s med­ical mar­i­juana to help him live a nor­mal life.

Prior to his first toke as a high school senior, this 22-year-old New Jer­sey native and cur­rent Col­orado State Uni­ver­sity stu­dent was con­stantly struck with seizures and other side effects from epilepsy.

Arizona’s Novem­ber bal­lot will include a vote on the Ari­zona Med­ical Mar­i­juana Act, which would allow mar­i­juana use for peo­ple with ter­mi­nal or seri­ous ill­nesses and other qual­i­fy­ing conditions.

DaGiau was fine until age 10. Then his first seizure hit in a play­ground. His sec­ond seizure was kind enough to come a mere two weeks later, in the mid­dle of the school cafeteria.

“It would be the begin­ning of a jour­ney through thou­sands of con­vul­sions, 13 anti-epileptic drugs, mul­ti­ple alter­na­tive treat­ments and five brain surg­eries, the last of which would leave me par­a­lyzed on my left side,” DaGiau wrote in an e-mail.

“For eight years I would endure the often dev­as­tat­ing side effects of West­ern med­i­cine until finally, when hope had begun to wear thin, I dis­cov­ered the answers to my prayers and my first effec­tive treat­ment: cannabis.”

DeGiau has cer­tainly had one heck of a ride until he had his first hit of a joint at age 18.

“As it entered my body, my con­stant plagu­ing thoughts of seizures dis­si­pated,” he said. “It was as if my prison had dissolved.”

That was the last hit he had for two whole years, until, as a last resort, he applied for the med­ical mar­i­juana pro­gram as a sopho­more at Col­orado State University.

Before his appli­ca­tion went through, he decided to go for one more surgery, even though past surg­eries were not met with success.

“I was too anx­ious to attain a cure, too impa­tient to see if I would ever be able to employ mar­i­juana as a treatment.”

So he went under the knife – with dis­as­trous results.

“Not only would I con­tinue seiz­ing,” he said, “but rather, this time, I would be par­a­lyzed on my left side, due to an unfore­seen level of swelling in my brain.”

Med­ical mar­i­juana to the rescue.

Read More…