Jimi DevineWe talked with Jim Belushi ahead of the third season of Growing Belushi as he looks to take the brand international.
The third season will also be the biggest run for the series yet with Discovery doubling the order to six episodes after a 30% jump in rating from Season 1 to 2. It makes sense, there are plenty of things to talk about in the cannabis industry at the moment, both foreign and Domestic. Belushi told L.A. Weekly should things go well, they have the footage for a couple more episodes.
Some regulars who will be tagging along and making appearances on this season’s tale of survival and expansion include Dan Aykroyd, cousin Chris and Larry Joe Campbell. 
Belushi is excited.
“We’re on Wednesday night! And we are following Moonshiners. So it’s like, grab your illegal whiskey and grab your legal weed and it’s go for the evening,” Belushi told L.A. Weekly. “Third season, it’s going a little more national and global. I’m really taking it from the little flower to going to see what’s going on in the national picture.”
After the first two seasons at his cannabis farm, Belushi is excited about how far and wide they went for the latest installments of the series. Production saw the team visit 14 states and three countries, including Canada and Albania.
Belushi really enjoyed his time diving into the Albanian scene.
“It’s beautiful. They’re building it. It’s incredible what’s going on in that country. It’s gonna be the new resort area for tourism, and tourism is just skyrocketing because the prices are really great. The food is great. It’s a very young crowd there,” Belushi said. “They’re very curious about expanding medical cannabis for export there, and I know the Prime Minister and Albania, and he wanted to pick my brain.”
Belushi explained part of this season is him letting his ego get the best of him. Hence the call for expansion and international market domination, the latter probably mostly a joke, but rooted in high hopes. 
We asked Belushi what it’s like to shoot in this more touring style compared to sharing his personal trials at the farm.
“Oh, well, there are a lot of personal trials,” Belushi replied. “That’s the whole point, like national expansion isn’t that easy with every state having different compliance, different rules and some are medical states, some are recreational states. So that’s what we can explore a little bit.”
We asked Belushi what going national meant to him. Was it licensing intellectual property? Setting up gardens in other states?
“Lot of it is licensing. But vetting out the growers and the companies,” Belushi explained. “We got a great opportunity and Shelbyville, Illinois, taking over indoor grow that was a charity grow, all the profits go to charity. And we are taking that over and actually kind of doing like a Bar Rescue of like going into this girl upgrading everything and it becomes a Belushi Farms in Illinois. So we’re going to be growing in Illinois. We’re growing in Oregon and we’re licensing other places, other states, and possibly growing in Albania.”
Keep an eye out for new episodes of Growing Belushi starting Wednesday, April 5.
Belushi’s Farm
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