in our Spotlight on Business Report tonight it's a gamble Atlantic City's willing to make creating a new tourism economy around cannabis the state's Casino city is opening two medical cannabis dispensaries and two consumption lounges later this year those cannabis lounges an effort to attract people to the tourist City for a whole new experience and as Raven Santana reports the industry will also focus on giving back to Atlantic City a community that's been harmed by the War on Drugs how would you define cannabis hospitality and tourism you no longer need to be a regular at a casino to be considered a high roller that's because Atlantic City will be home to two medical dispensaries and two consumption lounges this summer Rob Mejia who is a teaching specialist in cannabis studies at Stockton University served as a moderator for a webinar focused on turning Atlantic City into a cannabis tourism destination so two of the biggest dispensaries and biggest consumption lounges in this state of New Jersey are going to be right in Atlantic City so there is one company called agricind and they are remodeling the Claridge Hotel the Claridge Hotel is roughly 10 000 square feet so you're going to have a 10 000 square foot dispensary and then you'll have a a consumption Lounge upstairs that's about the same size that is a lot of space and then you also have right across from the Hard Rock you'll have a facility called Endo that'll be run by Faye Coleman and she has a 4 000 square foot dispensary and she'll have a four thousand square foot consumption Lounge upstairs that is a combination of an indoor and an outdoor facility in both cases private parties can rent those areas and I think today everyone has a better idea and understanding in terms of what cannabis can bring uh not just to tourism but to patients uh as we see it medically as something of need from a medicinal standpoint for our patients and consumers but sometimes we just have consumers that just want to have a good experience Faye Coleman is owner of endo one of two of those dispensaries and consumption lounges anticipated to open this summer so we will absolutely be looking to hire locally and we will also be hiring uh through re-entry programs 30 of our jobs will come through re-entry programs so it's important that we just not reach back to just within the community those who are surrounding us but all of us who have been involved uh in the Cannabis industry in some way whether positive or negative because we need to bring everybody forward successfully it's the travel industry the hotels the attractions airports rental car companies the entire visitor economy understanding what cannabis is today which is a very it's rapidly innovating and evolving as well as the Cannabis stakeholders understanding what it means to be an attraction and an experience for visitors to a destination which is a different lens that goes above and beyond a transaction Brian Applegarth is the founder of the Cannabis travel Association International which promotes the development of safe and responsible cannabis tourism and for those that don't know what this is it's really kind of riding the wrongs from the war on drugs and those marginalized communities that were negatively impacted and targeted and oftentimes incarcerated um when cannabis was illegal we will be the East Coast Hub uh cannabis we have been Champion for lounges since the day has been legal Atlantic City's kashawn McKinley is director of constituent services and special projects for the city McKinley says despite originally receiving pushback from some city leaders about the future of cannabis tourism he says cannabis education and division sealed the deal we want you to purchase your candidates here I want you to consume it here we want you to check out a festival here I'll come here go one of our state of the art facilities here knowing we are a unique town we have 17 000 rooms 98 at 95 percent of those rooms are in the casino so they're federally regulated so where would the people be able to smoke at and can't smoke outdoors and they can't smoke in casinos so we want to make sure that our consumption liners are safe they are you know friendly and they are state of the art lounges that people can enjoy cannabis in Atlantic City the two dispensaries and consumption lounges are only the beginning of this Grand division they expect to see more marijuana-based businesses applying for licenses as Atlantic City rolls the dice yet again to attract new visitors for NG Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana support for the business report provided by the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey working for economic Prosperity by uniting business and Community leaders for 150 years membership and event information online at chamber snj.com