Overgrowing the Border? An Examination of Cascadian Culture and Cannabis Legalization

Abstract

ABSTRACT Globalization has challenged the role of borders in society, sparking interdisciplinary interest in the social reconstruction of the lines dividing the world’s population from one another. Border theorists have proposed that a few key factors promote cross-border integration: cross border policy-making, market forces, political clout, and culture [Brunet-Jailly, E. 2005. Theorizing Borders: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Geopolitics 10, no. 4: 633–49]. Perhaps because it is the least tangible and therefore most difficult to assess, the role of culture in shaping border phenomena has been the least elucidated. Our objective is to shed light on the operation of culture in borderland integration with a case study of cannabis law convergence in Cascadia, a region spanning the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington and Oregon. Through an examination of both grey and academic literature, we explore the extent to which shared culture across the border may have driven legalization of recreational cannabis, effective in each jurisdiction between 2012 and 2018.