RT 40: “What did you learn from your Nevada trip? [about legal cannabis]”
MFG: “Socially, [reform] decriminalized cannabis. That’s important for any urban center because there are so many lives that have been destroyed because they have gotten some kind of blemish for having marijuana.”
RT 40: “Should the licenses be given out in a way that reflects disproportionate incarceration rates for African-Americans for marijuana-related offenses?”
MFG: “Absolutely. It can’t just be something that rich Caucasians make another mint off of without having the ability of the persons that have suffered from it…
“There was a panel that spoke on that very point—making sure there’s adequate representation from those persons that have been punished for it. The other thing is truly the impact of economics. It costs taxpayers so much money to litigate someone for cannabis. The ends do not justify the means.
“Economically and socially there’s a benefit. But also from the pure profit, it was eye opening. They were six months into the legalization and $37 million came out of it. I would like Atlantic City to be in front of that. We need the revenue stream. Atlantic City would be ideal to be a host city for it, and naturally I’m going to lobby for more because the state still takes luxury, parking and room taxes from the city, which I don’t think is fair but lawmakers before me made that deal. But we have an ability to actually right a wrong by putting in some legislation that allows Atlantic City to get a true share of this.
“I also learned that in Vegas the casino industry has no appetite to want to host this [cannabis businesses] within their structure because of their regulatory and federal contacts, which in a sense is great for the city because now you begin to allow small businesses to come into the market to add that injection of ingenuity, job opportunity and revenue.
“The con of it was: I don’t want the City of Atlantic City to make the mistake that Vegas made. You have dispensaries that are designated where you can purchase, but there’s nowhere that’s designated for you to use what you purchased. I think Atlantic City can take advantage by creating a district that allows a hotel or boutique hotel or an adult district that builds in and around that particular industry. I don’t want people to come and buy and then leave.
“We want it to be a destination. We want you to be able to have the full experience. We want you to be able to go to a spa, sit and watch a game, sit in the lounge of a hotel and eat a gummy or whatever, because the world has to come off of this dense mindset, right?
“Because we are a state that has already opened up our minds to the utilization of the medicinal [marijuana]. It could help alleviate some of the opioid issues that Atlantic City has. I see it from a whole different paradigm. I know that Atlantic City has basically been the entity that regulated alcohol, we regulated legalized gaming and we should be the entity that is in position to regulate the adult usage of cannabis.”