'Growing Belushi' Episode 1: Why did Jim Belushi decide to grow cannabis, does it help with anxiety and PTSD?
Keeping all the ethical considerations aside, Discovery Channel's 'Growing Belushi' is an interesting look at an actor-turned-marijuana-farmer running his cannabis farm as he works along with his almost comical set of farmhands. Jim Belushi may be best known for 'Saturday Night Live' and 'The Blues Brothers', but he is soon to take over the realm of reality television series if the first episode of 'Growing Belushi' is anything to go by.
Belushi began growing cannabis in 2015 with only 28 plants in his pasture. Now expanded to a profitable brand, he tends 93 acres and several strains, including Belushi’s secret stash and a strain popularized on 'Saturday Night Live' in the 1970s, Captain Jack’s Gulzar Afghanica.
'Growing Belushi' shows him running the business he started in 2015 and interacting with his staffers, including his prone-to-exaggeration cousin, Chris — who oversees the day-to-day operations — and young growers Ben and Alex, whom he’s known since they were kids (he’s friends with their father). Viewers also get a glimpse of his personal life.
Belushi's sister-in-law Judith Belushi, who was married to John Belushi (he died of an overdose in 1982), tells viewers that Jim Belushi has always wanted to be a farmer and that "acting got in the way," just as soon as the show cuts to Belushi sitting on a stationary tractor saying, "the battery died." Clearly, farming may not be Belushi's calling, but he sure is trying hard to make his venture succeed.
We see that Belushi is quick to call out his employees when they slack off or mess up — albeit in a funny, kind of friendly way — but he himself messes up. For instance, Belushi leaves the artificial lights on while spraying the special Captain Jack strain cannabis plants — the plants dry up and while the others look on him, Belushi munches on cheeseballs. It is interesting to note that the Captain Jack strain was known as "The Smell of 'SNL'" when Belushi’s late brother, John, rose to stardom on 'Saturday Night Live' in the mid-70s.
Belushi's antics aside, he also tells viewers why he has decided to grow cannabis — he hopes cannabis is used to solve mental problems such as anxiety and PTSD. He believes that his brother turned to drugs because of the injuries sustained when he was a football player in high school. Belushi also says that he believes that his brother may have still been alive had he been a "pothead".
Belushi describes meeting a veteran when he visited a dispensary in Western Oregon. He says that the veteran told him that he was a medic in Irag and "saw things that happened in the human body that nobody should ever witness." The veteran told Belushi that he had PTSD and while he was prescribed Oxycontin, he had trouble talking to his family and sleeping.
However, Belushi's "Your Black Diamond" strain helped relax him enough to "take away the terror in [his] heart and talk to [his] family and sleep." Belushi says that this was the turning point where everything changed. He mentions how he fears death most in life and the collapse of family after that. Belushi said, "All I'm saying is from my experience with veterans especially is that cannabis is safe, clean and peaceful… That veteran changed my life."
'Growing Belushi' airs on Discovery Channel on Wednesday nights at 10/9c.