Donald R. Winn – Profile in Courage
Patient name: Donald R. Winn
Age: 32
Condition/Illness: Traumatic Brain Injury
Using medical cannabis since: Medically since 2011
Why did you start using cannabis?
On January 14, I slipped into a coma because of a very rare bacterial infection called streptococcus, which had caused me to stop breathing. So from there I was in a coma for about two-and-a-half weeks, so that had screwed up my sleeping because my neurons are always misfiring. So, I’ve tried numerous sleeping pills and none seem to work for me until I was introduced medical marijuana. From there I had replaced over 25 pills daily to only four each day.
Did you try other methods or treatments before cannabis?
Yes, like I had said in the previous question, I had tried numerous sleeping pills and anti-anxiety pills, depression pills, pills for muscle spasm—the list can keep going on and on. But let’s just say that medical marijuana had saved my life by letting me live without being heavily sedated off all the meds that the doctor had kept feeding me.
What’s the most important issue or problem facing medical cannabis patients?
I’d probably have to say the biggest problem we face about medical marijuana is that no one knows all the health benefits it has to it. And also how much it can help out with so much more.
What do you say to folks who are skeptical about cannabis as medicine?
Don’t judge a plant from the past. Judge it for all it can do for us.
