Jim Belushi Says Cannabis Could Have Saved His Brother John, Promotes Season 2 Of 'Growing Belushi'

Jim Belushi has been a part of the marijuana industry as a legal farmer for seven years. The former actor began his cannabis journey with a 48-plant crop and now manages the 93-acre Belushi Farm in southern Oregon. 

The "According to Jim" star came out as a weed farmer in the three-part Discovery series “Growing Belushi,” which documents his cannabis journey. Promoting the second season of the show, Belushi told Yahoo Entertainment,   that “[cannabis] is the greatest medicine. It gives you energy. It’s very creative.”

The actor also teamed up with Grassroots Cannabis to launch Blues Brothers x Grassroots featuring the Bubba Diagonal strain.

Cannabis Could Have Saved His Brother John

Belushi is so convinced of the healing powers of the plant that he has said of various occasions that his late brother John Belushi, of SNL, Animal House and more, would not have died so young if he had consumed marijuana. Belushi credits this idea to Dan Aykroyd who played John’s sibling in The Blues Brothers. 

 “You know, he died of a drug overdose and I really think, Danny said it, if he was a pothead, he'd be alive. Because it's a great medicine,” Belushi told Yahoo Entertainment. “I believe he had CTE from playing football and I believe a lot of his behavior stemmed from that.” CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated trauma to the head. John Belushi, who struggled with drug use throughout his life, died from an overdose in 1982 at 33.

Honoring John 

Season two of "Growing Belushi" features the Blues Brothers “baby blues,” or “parking lot joints,” as Aykroyd calls them, revealing that the farm can’t meet the growing demand for them.

For Belushi, Blues Brothers products are a way of honoring John.

"You know, there's an old saying that goes like this. When you drink the water, remember the men or women who dug the well,” Belushi said. “John dug the well for me. I'm drinking a lot of water. I mean, I'd be working at my dad's restaurant right now if it wasn't for John showing that there's another way, another profession. So John led a path for me that I've been enjoying this great life. And of course, I honor him.”

Photo: Courtesy of James C. Svehla  via Wikimedia Commons