and in our Spotlight on Biz report tonight the state's largest cannabis operator cure relief announces layoffs in South Jersey this marks the second time this year the company is eliminating jobs in Camden County the company's citing they have ample Supply to meet the Market's current needs this comes as many towns along the Jersey Shore opt out of the Cannabis Marketplace but Atlantic City has taken the opposite path working to establish itself as a cannabis destination so it came as something of a surprise when the city decided to pump the brakes on new cannabis businesses so Why the pause Mayor Marty Small joins me to get on the record with that and more on the future of cannabis in the city mayor Atlantic City was supposed to be the weed capital of the East Coast what happened uh yes uh thank you for having me and it's a great day here in the city of Atlantic City nothing happened um our plan is still to be the East Coast Hub when it comes to cannabis we just want to make sure that we continue to right size the market and people have to understand yes you can get a letter of approval from the mayor you get a resolution from city council you can get support from crda but your business won't open unless you get permission by the CRC so 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's been slow Statewide and we want to make the best I hear that but I I did want to know was there any pushback to the city's plan to become a hub for cannabis no but with simple you either opted in and you opted out we made that decision um very early on that we were going to be participants um it's generated jobs generated new construction um new interest and development opportunities here in the great city of city of Atlantic City and it's going to be a win-win-win for everyone involved so right now what Remains the biggest challenge for expansion of cannabis operations one of the biggest challenge is that you know some people get comfortable with the conditional approval and the conditional is what it is it's you know approval no one is approved until they meet these standards uh you know by the state of New Jersey um we want to support business we supported everyone that came here with the understanding knowing that everyone's not going to make it and we don't want 40 dispensaries here in the great city of Atlantic City so it's not an overall pause we just working with the crda and you know pausing to just make sure we all on the same page we get to a number that we want to be at all right mayor let's talk about the anticipated green zone you know we know that plan includes a cannabis Hotel a museum multiple consumption lounges what's the status of that development this is not stopping um cannabis business in uh in Atlantic City this is basically making sure that we right-size the market that you know we are all on the same page with how many um we've never ever ever established that um there's a lot of interest every major company uh in the country wants to be in Atlantic City we just want to make sure that we're doing it right so the green zone is live in the world yeah and mayor for those who have had their business plans pause what can they expect what does the future hold for them then no we again I think there's some confusion in the message okay uh on last night's Council agenda was the last ones that we were going to put on the agenda for a while I mean people who are still um going through the process going through their approval um that doesn't stop you know once they get the green light from the state of New Jersey someone got approved for recreation the other day they were currently opening um an open as a medicinal facility um at the clergy now they're open for recreation we're not stopping them we just wanted to sit back get on the same page and kind of gauge what is too much you know for the city of Atlantic City it's a good thing we're open for business we encourage everyone to come to Atlantic City the time is now um with red hot as a city we got a lot of momentum and keep the Sparks going no pun intended all right you heard it here no one's stopping just a temporary pause Mayor Small thank you for joining me