By Don Bradley
Fans started lining up in a breezy 15 degrees to see Jim Belushi, and the line wound around the corner.
They came to see a movie star, and the fact that he was promoting his new brand of marijuana made the freezing wait seem a reasonable thing to do on a Saturday morning.
“It’s cool to see a celebrity and even cooler now because I get to buy weed from him,” a joyous Ginger Gilpin said at CODES KC Red Bridge where Belushi appeared as part of the dispensary’s grand opening.
Red Bridge is the first dispensary in Kansas City for CODES, which has locations throughout Missouri.
“Our biggest day yet,” said Kyle Degaeghere, general manager, said of Belushi’s appearance at the dispensary which opened Dec. 5.
Right off the bat, Belushi, 70, an SNL alum and star of movies Red Heat, Curly Sue and television’s “According to Jim,” showed he was not the typical celebrity: He arrived on time.
Blue jeans and sneakers. And he brought his dog.
During the grand opening’s meet and greet, a woman got to the front of the line and handed Belushi a DVD of the 1981 noir “Thief” for him to autograph.
He looked up at her, glumly.
“I died in that,” he said.
It wasn’t lost on Belushi that many in line wore Chiefs’ garb for the afternoon’s playoff game against the Texans.
He told the crowd that he would be going to the game and added that his team, the Chicago Bears, had a miserable season.
“Well, now you’ll finally get to see a good team,” someone yelled out.
For two hours, Belushi, who is also a musician, visited with staff and fans, shared Knuckleheads stories and signed a “BB’s Lawnside” cap and anything else someone brought him.
Technically, Ginger Gilpin, who came with his wife from Wyandotte County for the event, would not be buying weed from Belushi. But he would be getting a strain of marijuana engineered at Belushi’s farm in Oregon, and cultivated by a cannabis grower in Carroll County, Missouri.
That’s how it has to be. Missouri law says only marijuana grown in the state can be sold in the state. So in order for Belushi to sell his Hashburger, Mule Fuel and Cadillac Rainbows flower in Missouri, he had to get somebody in the state to grow it for him.
Thus, C4 — Carroll County Cannabis Company. They are the official growers of “Belushi’s Farm” products in the state.
And from Carroll County, the flower that Belushi calls “working man’s cannabis” and grown through “Blue Brothers Genetics” makes its way to dispensaries, including CODES at 668 E. Red Bridge in south Kansas City.
Belushi got into cannabis growing in the 1990s at his 93-acre farm in Oregon. To hear him talk, it was almost a spiritual undertaking as much as commercial agriculture.
He’s been known to play harmonica and sing to his plants. He’s played gospel music to let the plants know they are “on a mission from God.”
Wonder where he got that from.
His brother John Belushi of Blues Brothers fame, died of a cocaine overdose in 1982. Co-Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd once said: “If John had been a pothead, he’d still be alive today.”
Jim touched on that Saturday at CODES by citing annual deaths from alcohol, opiates, cigarettes and prescription drugs.
“How many people die from marijuana?” he asked.
John Belushi died more than 40 years ago and made only a handful of movies. But two of those were “Animal House” and “The Blues Brothers” — which give him film icon billing for the ages.
Jim has made a lot more movies, but nothing has risen to iconic status.
But he sure has plenty of loyal fans.
When an older man in a Chiefs’ hat got to the autograph table, he leaned over and told Belushi he had come from Iowa.
“You came all the way from Iowa for a football game?” Belushi asked.
The man stood up straight and pointed a finger at Belushi.
“You,” he said. “I came from Iowa for you, dude.”