Born in Chicago and raised in Wheaton, IL, Jim Belushi was a troublemaker. The comic actor turned cannabis entrepreneur tells Sara Payan on her Planted podcast, "I used to be the crime rate in Wheaton. They would follow me in my car every time I lit a joint."
Belushi, now 70, paints a disturbing picture: "I was a juvenile delinquent. I was a ward of the court. I spent three days in jail."
He first started smoking pot with his junior high school friends "in the back by the baseball diamond right by the cemetery - an eerie place to get high. I think it was OK because I continued. And I continued to the point that I got busted three times."
Belushi, who's the younger brother of John, says Wheaton "was a dry town. It was voted in 1967 the All American City. They had as many churches as gas stations. My Dad moved us from downtown Chicago because he didn't want me to be in gangs." It's 30 miles due West of Chicago.
He recalls getting harassed by Wheaton PD "one time when I was dressed as Santa Claus. I was doing Santa Claus on Christmas Eve to make a little money during college. I mean, they were rough."
This happened when he was attending the College of DuPage (COD). In 2008, Belushi explained: "I would dress up as Santa each holiday and go visit like 25 houses. I charged $15 bucks, and it paid for all of my gifts. I’m driving down President Street and didn’t have my license, and this Wheaton cop who had it out for me pulls me over in the Santa suit and arrests me, handcuffs and all. Right near a playground and park. All these kids in the backseats of their parents’ cars are rolling down the window going ‘Santa’s going to jail!’”
Jim Belushi: "I was a juvenile delinquent. I was a ward of the court. I spent three days in jail."
But he has a soft spot for Wheaton because "I couldn't see what they saw, but they saw something in me." Belushi refers to a Judge Nolan in the interview who looked out for him.
"It was a wealthy county and community," he says. "Anytime I got arrested there was always something to put me in - just like in that song from West Side Story, 'Officer Krupke,' I went to the social worker, I went to the psychiatrist, I went to group therapy, I had probation officers. What I realized through those four years of high school I had a man to talk to every week. I really credit these gentlemen for mentoring me. I make fun of the community but I'm also grateful that they didn't throw me in jail like they threw other people in jail, you know? So even cannabis back then brought me to new enlightenment."
Judge Nolan made him serve the three days in jail. "He couldn't understand because I was into theater, I played football, I had a B average, I never missed school, I wasn't truant," Belushi says. "All my little crimes, my offenses were victimless. Nobody got hurt. I wasn't breaking into houses."
However, he does admit to stealing his parents' car, shoplifting and one time getting into a fight. "Little stuff. So they straightened me out. I was looking for attention. Judge Nolan gave it to me. He did the right thing by me.
"I never got in trouble again," Belushi says about the jail stint. "I walked out of there and by God I picked up litter on the street. That's how much they deterred me."
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