Medical cannabis seminar presented in Anna

Medical Cannabis Outreach Pain Management & Wellness Clinics hosted two educational seminars last weekend in Southern Illinois.

The first of the two seminars was held Saturday morning at Stinson Memorial Library in Anna. More than 30 people attended the seminar, which was in the auditorium at the library.

A second seminar was scheduled Saturday afternoon in Metropolis. Both events were free and open to the public.

Information shared at Saturday’s seminar in Anna showed that Medical Cannabis Outreach, MCO, Pain Management & Wellness Clinics have locations in Harrisburg, Pekin, Fulton, Shelbyville and Melrose Park.

Harrisburg and Anna also are the home of Thrive dispensaries, which provide medical cannabis products to patients. 

The clinics work to assist patients with the application process needed for the use of medical cannabis. The clinics provide medical cannabis friendly physicians. 

The clinics evaluate, counsel, certify and register patients for the Illinois medical cannabis program. 

They also offer a customized cannabis therapy program which is designed to help first-time cannabis users with medicating.

Caprice Sweatt, the founder and CEO of Medical Cannabis Outreach, who has suffered with Crohn’s disease for 33 years, said in a news release which announced plans for the seminars in Anna and Metropolis that she has used only medical cannabis for her illness for the last 25 years, all while staying prescription drug free.

She shared that message in person at the seminar in Anna, declaring that medical cannabis is “almost an instant game changer” in terms of its benefits for a patient.

“I love to get out and tell people what’s happening to me,” she said during the course of a presentation which lasted for about an hour. The seminar closed with a question-and-answer session.

“We want to see cannabis as a first option...not a last option,” Sweatt stated in a message which was shared several times during the seminar.

Sweatt said she is working to erase a stigma which can be associated with the use of medical cannabis.

Sweatt and her team at MCO work to provide a statewide service to qualified patients. 

MCO has gotten thousands of qualified patients approved to the medical cannabis program, Sweatt stated prior to the seminar.

The seminar offered a Power Point presentation explaining the rules and regulations of the Illinois medical cannabis program. 

The seminar also offered information about the medicinal benefits of medical cannabis. 

Sweatt emphasized the role of medical cannabis as a treatment option for patients who might benefit from its use. Used correctly, she said, it is “amazing what it will do for you.”

She offered a note of caution, though. “Because it is legal medically does not mean you can sit on your front porch and smoke pot,” she said.

MCO’s mission, as stated in a pamphlet which was made available to those attending Saturday’s seminar in Anna, is “to provide a safe, professional, clinical setting for qualified patients to gain safe, legal access to medical cannabis. We believe in cannabis as a medicine and we want to help you heal through our customized cannabis therapy program. Our goal is to optimize your therapeutic relationship with medical cannabis.”

MCO offers physician certifications, application processing, customized cannabis therapy programs for patients, continuing cannabis care, home visits and a first time user package.

(Information about the services which MCO offers can be found online at www.MedicalCannabisOutreach.com.)