Last Thursday, President Joe Biden signed the legislation June 19This is a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. The measure has been unanimously passed by a vote of 415 to 14 in the Senate and House of Representatives.

The June Festival is to commemorate June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to inform the enslaved African Americans that the Civil War had ended, and they had signed according to President Abraham. The Emancipation Proclamation was freed by Lincoln in 1863.

After arriving in Galveston, General Granger issued five written orders, but the most important was Order No. 3, which included: “All slaves are free.”

The proclamation ended slavery only in the states that seceded from the Union in 1860-61; the end of slavery in the entire country (including 34 states in 1865) did not become until December 1865, when the 13th Amendment was incorporated into the constitution. legal.

As with the legalization of marijuana, the states celebrate June Festival in front of the federal government. In 1979, thanks to the efforts of national representatives to a large extent Al Edwards, Texas passed legislation to make June Day a holiday. This week, Hawaii became the 49th state to recognize this day (South Dakota is the only state that has not passed legislation to make June Day an annual holiday, but it does This day was commemorated in 2020).

The federal recognition of June Festival represents another small step in our national journey to embrace the history of slavery and racial injustice in the United States. This holiday not only provides an opportunity to celebrate, but also an opportunity to reflect. Past and present injustice, and mourn the loss. These losses include lives, of course, but also opportunities lost by generations of black Americans.

Decades of cannabis-related arrests, convictions, and imprisonment have caused structural, economic, and moral damage to many communities across the country. In some states, the legalization of medical and adult use of marijuana is accompanied by social justice programs designed to benefit people and communities devastated by the “drug war.”A recent example is New York State recently passed the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation ActOr MRTA, which sets the goal to issue 50% of distribution and retail licenses to socially fair applicants.

In the New York example, the definition of “social justice applicant” includes relatives who have been convicted or have such records for smoking marijuana in the past, people who live in economically difficult areas or areas where marijuana crimes have been committed in a discriminatory manner, income It is less than 80% of the median income of the counties, businesses owned by ethnic minorities and women, disabled veterans, and farmers with financial difficulties.

Some marijuana legal states have implemented regulations aimed at correcting social inequality, but most of these measures are not enough; they opened the door for “social justice applicants” but failed to provide administrative and financial support, which is In most cases it is necessary to ensure success in the cruel world of cannabis production and distribution.

We see important opportunities for equity licensees and non-equity businessmen to collaborate to share knowledge and opportunities, create profitable businesses, and help repair some of the damage caused by the “drug war”.

On this historic day, the first June Festival officially celebrated nationwide, we applaud President Biden and members of Congress who voted for this measure.