Local and area residents can attend a free event at the Jacksonville Public Library this Thursday to talk about the state of medical cannabis in Illinois.
Chris Ashmore is the director of the Jacksonville Public Library. He takes a moment to describe the event.
“It’s a program about medical cannabis in Illinois. It’s just an informational program for people that have questions, even concerns or, what have you, of how it works. You can advocate for patients… It’s a woman coming down from the Illinois Women in Cannabis. She’s an advocate, a patient advocate, to help people that need medical cannabis, can use medical cannabis. It’s just kind of an informational program for Jacksonville because there’s places as close as Springfield with dispensaries for medical cannabis.”
Kirsten Velasco is the Director and Assistant Secretary of Illinois Women in Cannabis. Velasco will be visiting this Thursday for an educational seminar and to lead an open discussion to provide more information on the medical cannabis industry. Velasco regularly presents educational seminars on medical cannabis throughout Illinois.
Ashmore said this isn’t the first time Velasco has been to Jacksonville.
“This is actually the second time we’ve had her. She did a program two years ago which was very well attended and we thought, ‘Well, we won’t do it every year…’ but we thought we’d have her come back ’cause enough time has passed. We had, oh I don’t know, thirty-some people here for the program last time. She maybe talked for a half an hour and then there was probably more than a half hour’s worth of… of questions for people’s particular situations, so we thought, ‘Oh, let’s try it again.’”
He outlines some of the specific things Velasco will be discussing and the benefits of learning about this issue.
“She’ll go over what the law is, you know, what it’s used for, what type of people can apply to get this ,what you would need to talk to your doctor about. Just any questions you might have, because most of us, if you’re like me, don’t know a thing about it. So it’s basically for those that are maybe considering it themselves and just don’t know a thing about it, or just those that are curious about the issue because it’s kind of a hot topic.”
The event will be held in the basement meeting room of the Jacksonville Public Library starting at 6:30pm. All are welcome to attend. Thursday’s event is free to the public.