“The first time I smoked cannabis...I felt...nothing!” Jim Belushi says with a bear of a laugh from the library in his house in the Windy City. “I was in eighth grade and it was probably...oregano.”

However, the next few times he smoked he “laughed his ass off”—and he was hooked. “I was always chasing the laughs. I love laughing.”

Today, he is puffing on a big Cuban cigar, not a J. He’s taking a short break from cannabis and alcohol due to his divorce. “I am doing it so I can really feel the loss and grief in an organic way,” he says.

Set on 93 acres in Southern Oregon’s dazzling Banana Belt, Belushi’s Farm has grown from a handful of plants into a sprawling spiritual cannabis sanctuary replete with two barns, a smattering of greenhouses, a farmhouse, and a Native American-built subterranean sweat lodge. Belushi often holds sweat lodge ceremonies with members of the Indigenous Takelma (“those along the river”) tribe.

They dance, sweat, and chant, summoning the spirits of Mother Earth, Father Sun, Water Spirit, and Fire Spirit. And, well, they work.

“The water, the air, the climate and soil are absolutely perfect here,” he says like a proud Papa. “We are blessed.”

However, when he first bought the farm he had no idea what to do with it. It was Dan Aykroyd, creative partner to his late brother, John, from SNL and the Blues Brothers film franchise, who said to him, “Jimmy, you know cannabis is now legal in Oregon. You should have a cannabis farm. Let me introduce you to...Captain Jack.” (Dan has always felt that if John had stayed just a “pothead” he’d still be alive.)

CAPTAIN JACK, SNL & THE GARDEN OF AFGHANICA

In the late 1970s, Captain Jack was the weed dealer for the hit late-night show Saturday Night Live. In 1966, Captain Jack grew his first plant in college on the front lawn of his school’s national security house. Jack spent the summers of 1971 and ‘72 making trips to a remote village in the Northeast region of Afghanistan, outside of Mazar-i-Sharif, past the Hindu Kush mountain range. There, he slowly endeared himself to the village elders by working alongside them in the fields, growing and harvesting a magical plant called Gulzar Afghanica, or “Garden of Afghanica.”

He brought it back to New York and it blew everyone’s minds—in a good way.

Soon, the cast of Saturday Night Live summoned him. Jack quickly became a regular fixture backstage at SNL tapings. He always brought plenty of “gifts”—his legendary Afghanica marijuana—that sweetly perfumed the greenroom and put the actors in good creative moods. Jack’s Gulzar Afghanica became “the Smell of SNL.”

After inviting Jack to his farm, Captain showed Jim his weed-growing magic tricks. Jim was sold. Belushi’s Farm would grow cannabis.

BLUES BROTHERS, KEN KESEY & TARO

After losing his brother and starting his own healing journey, Belushi became a big advocate for the healing properties of cannabis. “It always enraged me that people called cannabis a gateway drug,” he says. “There are almost 500,000 deaths a year from cigarettes, 200,000-plus a year from alcohol, and over 100,000 deaths from opiates a year—and zero deaths attributed to cannabis.”

In an ode to John and Dan, Blues Brothers pre-rolls were launched. A sativa-dominant sun-grown strain, it’s all about good times, laughter, and creativity. “A perfect strain for listening to music or watching comedic TV,” he says. It has 18% THC and is bursting with the smell of citrus, berry, and cheese, creating a sweet lemon-like aroma.

Although the farm takes a lot of his time, Belushi has not stopped acting. He made four films in 2025, starring alongside Kristen Stewart, Hugh Jackman, and Kate Hudson. The Chronology of Water, directed by Stewart, was well received at the Cannes Film Festival, he remarked. And in a deliciously plumed irony he plays Ken Kesey, the infamous sixties counterculture figure, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and big-time marijuana advocate. (He famously went to jail for possession in the mid-1960s.) “It was a good fit,” he says with a roaring laugh.

But the farm is always calling. It’s where he feels most blissful and in touch with himself and the supernatural land. When not planting, trimming, or drying, Belushi can be found patrolling the Rogue River with his German Shepherd, Taro, who likes to chase squirrels and deer.

“He’s my best friend,” Belushi says.

PARTAKING HOUR

I like to sit on my porch at the farm in Southern Oregon at sunset and admire the vortex of beauty. I am right on the Rogue River, in a little hidden valley. My neighbor brings over 50 pregnant cows in January and we watch the baby cows being born. It’s so beautiful. You can hear the river.

WHY CANNABIS

It makes me laugh! It makes me think. It also heals lots of trauma.

LOUNGE

Woody’s in West Hollywood. I love what he and Bill [Maher] have done there. It’s a magical place to partake.

HASH

I think Belushi’s Farm makes the best hash. It’s old school brick hash—fresh frozen and good tasting. It makes me feel uplifted, relaxed, and cerebral.

PAIRINGS

A nice cold beer and some sativa is relaxing.

GO-TO MUNCHIE

Twizzlers!

DABBING

I have only dabbed once and that was with Steve DeAngelo, the father of legal cannabis in California. It blew my brains out! All I kept saying was, Man, I am so high, am I making any sense? He was like, “Yes, you are making perfect sense.”

JOHN BELUSHI

My brother was a very straight guy in high school—V-neck sweater, middle linebacker, homecoming king. He smoked his first J at the University of Wisconsin and immediately became a hippie, White Panther, actor, etc. He caught the bug.

BEING A FARMER

I love the day-to-day of it. I do it all and know it all. My hands are dirty every day, I trim, etc. We use Advanced Nutrients’ organic line and it grows the best cannabis.

NO-NOS

I never smoke or drink when I perform. When you are making people laugh it’s pure bliss and I want to feel it without any substances.

FAV STRAINS

I only really smoke my own Belushi’s Farm stuff. I know how it’s grown and I trust it. I love the Big Sur Holy Weed. A perfect sativa. Keeps me focused. And makes me feel really good. I also like Cherry Pie, which is nicknamed The Marriage Counselor, because it’s a sweet, gentle high where you say “you're beautiful” a lot.