well in Atlantic City the lucky number is 38 the resort town this week opened the state's 38th recreational cannabis dispensary and just the second legal weed store to open its doors in the city overall it's all part of a push for more investments in so-called green tourism but as Raven Santana reports it's going to take a lot more than good luck to get there I don't drink so it's weed replaced replaced alcohol for me so don carpowicz traveled about 40 minutes to Atlantic City for medical marijuana to help with his neurological condition even though with my medicine it's advice to others and some people but still it's a it's a recreational that's why they call it recreational it's for fun however Christina Castile owner of design 710 dispensary says the process to get her business up and running has been anything but fun I mean I think it was 1296 days from the day that we applied to the day that we opened for medical sales It's been a a long long long ride Tuesday castile's dispensary became the second recreational dispensary opened in Atlantic City helping to jump start the town's sought out reputation as a cannabis destination I got uh some pre-rolleds I got some edibles and I got a vape very excited to try this stuff out and I want more people to get involved and I want the stigma to go away because I do feel that there's so many benefits to it the mayor and other City officials have previously expressed their support for green tourism however they announced that all new license grants would be put on hold in Late July in an interview last month on NG Spotlight news Atlantic City Mayor Marty small explains the decision and the future of cannabis in the city our plan is still to be the East Coast Hub when it comes to cannabis we don't want to over saturate the market here in the city of Atlantic City so we're just taking a little pause to make sure that you know we roll this thing out right it might just be a temporary kind of because there were so many licenses handed out and and I mean my understanding is that it's kind of you know let's let these people catch up you know find property find funding because that's the toughest part you know you get a conditional license then you have to find property you have to find funding and today it's almost nearly impossible in some scenarios I feel like there's still a stigma when it comes to cannabis I do I definitely do but I think that it's kind of dissipating as more and more Cannabis stores like this come online again it's not you know some CD store that most um you know think that it's going to be and they walk into here and they're like wow it's just a regular store it's a retail store we've got merchandise we've got you know product and you know great people and they just feel comfortable and you know you know we've got our flipboards here that um pay homage to Old Time Atlantic City we can throw up someone's birthday anniversary we welcome you know visitors here just to give a personalized experience and personalizing the experience could be how some Canada businesses thrive While others don't says Stockton University teaching Specialist of cannabis studies Robert Mejia and so what's happening now and what you'll see for the next six months 12 months 18 months is the dispensary starting to build out and some of them will be successful some of them will open and will be thriving businesses unfortunately some of them will never make it to the starting line so there's a number of pretty big obstacles to to start a cannabis business and unfortunately it's estimated probably only about 20 percent of those businesses will ever get off the ground Mejia says they are doing their part to help Atlantic City become a cannabis destination by offering classes and cultivation processing and Retail licensing and come September new classes in distribution warehousing and delivery will be offered creating new jobs and opportunities for those wanting to get in our state's growing cannabis industry for NG Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana support with a business report provided by Junior achievement of New Jersey providing students with skills and knowledge to explore choose and Advance their career paths for a brighter future online at janj.org [Music]