For Simsbury lawyer April Arrasate, getting involved in the new medical marijuana industry in Connecticut was very personal.

After growing up in New England, Arrasate lived in California and then South Carolina. She was working as a litigator in Myrtle Beach in 2008 when her mother, Rachel, who lived in Simsbury, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Arrasate came north repeatedly to care for her mother in the final year of her life; she passed away in February 2011.