Eric Powers was left with complex neurological problems
A man living with multiple sclerosis (MS), severe migraines, extreme nausea, and a complex neurological disorder said medical cannabis has “saved his life” and wants to dispel the “long-standing stigma” behind the drug. Eric Powers, 49, a former IT specialist living in Birkenhead, Merseyside, said his neurological condition came about after an inflatable slide incident when he was 13 in 1989. The accident saw him flip into the air and land on his head, leading to him “slipping into a coma” that lasted for five days.
Ever since, Eric – who is originally from Florida – said this progressed to a complex neurological condition that “nobody could explain” where he will experience temporary blindness, cannot sleep or swallow, convulse, and sometimes go into a coma. The latter has happened four times in total, lasting three days on average. In the early days, Eric said these episodes would come on “monthly”, prompting him to try numerous pain medications, but they came with “major side effects” that helped with some symptoms but would exacerbate others.
Then Eric tried cannabis for the first time at the age of 27 in 2003 and said “it was almost an instant flip” where his nausea disappeared and he went from “wanting to throw up” to being able to eat something and “feeling better”. The drug has continued to help manage his pain following a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) in his early 40s, and since moving to the UK in 2025 after finding love online.
Eric told PA Real Life: “I’ve been dealing with bad health for my whole life and cannabis is the only thing that keeps me going. It helps me with everything and it’s literally saved my life in so many ways I can’t even begin to describe. But there’s a really nasty stigma around it and that’s the thing that upsets me,” he added.
When Eric had his accident at 13 and developed a complex neurological condition, his health deteriorated to severe migraines, vision loss, insomnia, extreme nausea, vomiting, convulsions, and comas. A later diagnosis of MS – which the NHS describes as an incurable condition that affects the brain and spinal cord – at 41 would go on to be a possible explanation for the severity of the episodes, after Eric said doctors found lesions on his “brain and spinal cord”.
Eric said: “I could be feeling completely normal and suddenly I would start losing my vision, and I knew it was gonna happen. An episode would take four to five days to recover from and sometimes put me in the hospital.”
On the impact this had on his life, Eric added: “I had been suffering and struggling so long and I was even fighting to keep my jobs because these episodes would come on out of nowhere.”
As a result, Eric said doctors prescribed him “all kinds of medications” over the years, including painkillers that were strong enough to ease his pain but carried a serious risk of addiction, antidepressants, a drug called Zofran that is typically used to treat nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and triptans – a type of acute medicine for migraines.
He said: “These medications had major side effects. It was horrible. I would experience all these different things while they were trying to deal with my migraines and episodes, but nothing really worked.”
Eric was 27 when his father first suggested he should try cannabis to manage his symptoms, but it was not legal where he was living in Florida at the time. Cannabis is still illegal in the state for recreational use – as it is in the UK, where it is classified as a class B drug – but it has been legal for medical use in Florida since 2017, and the UK since 2018.
When Eric tried it for the first time, he described it as being “like a switch went off” in his head and he felt pain relief like nothing else he had tried in the past. Eric said: “It was better than any of the drugs doctors were putting me on. It was helping me eat and sleep, as well as helping me with my anxiety and my pain.”
Eric has experienced stigma throughout the years for using cannabis to manage his symptoms, including from medical professionals. In his early 30s, he said he had an episode and ended up in hospital: “When I was in the hospital, my potassium levels were so low that they thought I was going to have a heart attack, so they started pumping potassium straight into my veins.
“It was so painful that they had to initiate painkillers while they were doing it, but the doctor came in and he said they had discovered some cannabis in my system so they thought I was a drug addict. I was in excruciating pain and I was basically being tortured (by being denied painkillers) because they found cannabis in my system.”
Over the following years, Eric moved around the US, including to the states Washington State and California, and he was able to get a prescription for medical cannabis in the latter. Then he met his English partner, Diane, while online gaming in 2011 aged 35.
They were friends at first, then began a long distance relationship where they travelled back and forth to visit each other, before getting engaged in 2016. Eric travelled to the UK to get married in 2021, but he did not have access to medical cannabis so he ended up having an episode and being admitted to hospital for nine days.
“I almost missed my wedding,” Eric said. Due to immigration delays, Eric moved to Birkenhead in Merseyside in 2025, so he set out trying to find a prescription for medical cannabis. Medical cannabis has been legal in the UK since 2018 for specific conditions including epilepsy, MS, or for cancer patients going through chemotherapy, but it must be prescribed by a specialist and only after other treatments have not worked, according to the NHS.
Eric found the private clinic, Curaleaf, and said it was “extremely receptive” while listening to his story. He completed a short online questionnaire, had a 30-minute consultation with a General Medical Council registered specialist, and had his medical records checked before he was approved for use.
Eric said: “I’m deadly serious when I say that cannabis is the only drug I’ve ever found that actually helps with not just one, but so many of my health problems. If it wasn’t for the cannabis, I would probably be in the hospital. Who knows if I’d even be sitting here talking to you right now. I honestly don’t think I would.”
On the drug’s stigma, Eric added: “We need to reprogram people to realise that this is so helpful for people like me. We need it to function due to health ailments and we do it because we have to in order to survive.”
