BEZEGOL: “I have a lot to thank the plant, it has given me a lot of inspiration”

The name by which he is known “since he remembers being people” came from cannabis, from the slang of Porto, where “ganza” or hashish are also known as “bezegol”. Born and raised in Bairro da Pasteleira, Porto, BEZEGOL* has no problem talking about his cannabis use and, during the 4th edition of Cannadouro, he told us how his stage name came about. The real name? We didn't even remember to ask, because, after all, what does that matter? BEZEGOL is BEZEGOL*!

In celebration of 4:20, the day of cannabis around the world, we publish the interview that Bezegol gave for issue #4 of Cannadouro Magazine.

How long ago did you take the cannabis out of the closet?
(Laughter) I never had it in the closet, to tell you the truth. I don't know, my relationship with cannabis is over 30 years old, it comes from a time when that expression “closet” even made sense, because consumption was illegal, and then they forced us to live in a more clandestine way . Today we can be a little more comfortable. It's not that it's legal, but consumption has been decriminalized and that was a huge step forward in terms of laws, for a variety of reasons, because when I talk about cannabis I don't just mean smoking a couple of joints, because cannabis goes far beyond that. So, decriminalization was not only good for people to be able to smoke a couple of joints, but also to free the judicial system from ridiculous processes of people who were caught with a lot of hashish or cannabis in their pockets, to take the burden off the prisons, because it ended up there are many convictions. So, “taking cannabis out of the closet”, nowadays, means that we can give more face to the cause, without being so harassed by the authorities.

Where does your stage name come from?
This new generation doesn't know it anymore, but the name BEZEGOL comes from cannabis. They call me BEZEGOL for as long as I can remember, in that neighborhood where I was born, in Porto. At the time, that term was used a lot and I caught the older ones asking if they had “bezegol” or if there was someone with “bezegol” and I thought the word was funny. I was very pissed off and I started using the term, it came to the people and said: “So, the bezegol, is it already resolved?” And they thought it was funny, because I was so pissed off. “Oh, you don't even know what that is”, they said. But I kept saying, until, when I noticed her, I was arriving and they were already starting: “Look, Bezegol is coming!” It was the nickname they gave me, even as a kid. So cannabis turns out to be a scene that has lived with me forever.

How do you see the current cannabis situation in Portugal?
It's cool to see all these emotions from the emergence of CBD, the developments that cannabis is having... I still find it a little ridiculous, still, to have this speech by the authorities, which has a lot of weight in the legalization (or not) of cannabis, and listening to these speeches that there are not enough studies…In less than a year vaccines for Covid appeared, this plant has been here for five thousand years and there was still no time to do studies? It's not very well understood. For example, the legislation for CBD without THC, which is unclear… how is it that weed suddenly appears in pharmacies, with a price that is inaccessible to patients? On the packaging it says that, once opened, it lasts for 10 days. If a package costs €150, whoever has to consume it will have to do it in 10 days, will spend €450 per month! It's cool that they've legalized it, so doctors can prescribe in certain cases; it's not cool the way they're doing it, because they end up throwing sand in their eyes, things are not explained as they should be. The Media here still works a lot on the basis of demonization, but if necessary, in the same channel where they demonized, there is also an advertisement recommending the use of cannabis. There is a lot of hypocrisy in the media. Of course, it's also the lobbies that pay for it and make it happen, but I think it was necessary — and I think CannaDouro does that job — to help people understand why things happen the way they do. 

What neighborhood did you grow up in?
In the pastry shop.

Is this a typical neighborhood here in Porto?
Mega typical. (laughs)

And that's when you had your first contact with cannabis?
Yes, of course, in the neighborhood.

You didn't even know what it was! When does…
Then I knew what it was! (Laughs)

And how was your first experience with cannabis?
I can't even say exactly what I remember anymore, because there it is, I'm almost 50 years old and I would have been 13 or 14, it was many years ago. I remember that, for us, it was normal, we had all our older friends there, a guy would steal from his brother he had at home or ask him, then he would go there in the basement to smoke a joint with friends. Then we had those hours there to avoid going into the house with red eyes, otherwise the old men would agree. But I started smoking hashish, which was what it was at the time. To tell you the truth, the first contact with the flower was much older, it was only towards the end of the century that I started to have access and to arrange weed in conditions.

How does cannabis help you?
The best thing I can tell you about cannabis is that it works like a stabilizer for me. It's that ritual I've been following for many years and with which I feel good. I don't like to use cannabis to get dizzy or to get lost. As some people my age turn to medication to regulate this or that, I have found this in cannabis to this day. AND I have a lot to thank the plant, it has given me a lot of inspiration, it helped me to write. I have at least five albums that I wrote under her influence.

Well, I was going to ask you that, how does cannabis enter your creative process?
Honestly, it enters into everything in my life, because I wake up and smoke (I'm a wake and bake), then cannabis influences everything. Naturally, I take a little more pause, and sometimes I spend hours at a time writing, then I go back to smoking one and the inspiration comes back. My relationship with cannabis is very peaceful, it never made me uncomfortable, I never felt that cannabis made me go backwards in any aspect of my life. So far, my relationship with cannabis has been the best.

Do you realize that most people would not be able to understand this...
I'm sorry, because there's still a kind of stigma for a lot of people who aren't into this and go for that easy judgment, because they've been instilled in them all these years, by the authorities, that cannabis was bad and harmful. Of course, I'm not going to be here either saying that you should take cannabis and give it to little kids. It is just like wine, we are a land of wine and I am against giving wine to minors, because it is not the right time, it will not contribute to their development. Cannabis should be treated in the same way, with common sense and responsibility. It is necessary to educate people, instead of saying that it is a bad thing and that there are still no studies... this is already a tired conversation and it is increasingly proven, even with magazines like CannaDouro, that cannabis is not that diabolical world .

You already said that you are an assumed wake & bake. Do you do periods of abstinence, without smoking, or have you smoked daily for many years?
No, every now and then you have to stop for a while. There are times when I smoke less, when I'm busier, if I'm in the studio, or in the workshop (I have a workshop where I work in iron), and I'm not that guy who has to stop to smoke or anything like that. I can handle an entire afternoon or morning without smoking. Maybe, on vacation, I smoke more, but I don't have a dose or a measure. It also depends on the flower you have at the time, there are some that put me lower, so I save them for when I go to sleep. I like to play with indicas and sativas, depending on the mood of its own. I'm in.

Is it also according to your state of mind?
Yeah, and I've also smoked for so many years… you end up having the scene with you, you already regulate yourself. Then cannabis has that, it's not like pills, when you take too much you have to throw them up, if you feel like you're getting too high stop smoking.

Do you smoke only or do you like edibles too?
Edibles I don't like to use a lot. Sometimes, as a joke, a friend who has made them gives it to me and of course I taste it, but edibles have a problem, which is: I don't control well when they are going to activate. Sometimes you're eating one at one in the afternoon and then at five it hits you and you're, like, in a meeting… it's kind of boring. It's not something you do often. But I like, for example, to vape.

I was going to ask you about that too!
yes yes and helped me to quit tobacco, because I smoked a lot of cigarettes and luckily I don't smoke anymore［tobacco］.

But do you only vape cannabis or do you still smoke?
I smoke, I like to smoke. And I like to vape, but when I smoke I feel the flavor of the plant, for me there's nothing like making a good old-fashioned joint.

And do you mix tobacco or not?
Depends, sometimes I mix. Nicotine always ends up in the system and we always end up with that moth. I'm from that generation that smoked hashish mixed with tobacco, and that's what ended up getting me addicted to nicotine. I used to smoke two packs comfortably and today I don't smoke any. I can burn 3 cigarettes a day. And I feel it in my lungs, even singing. Before I felt more trapped and now I feel much better.

You are an artist and have already partnered with well-known singers. Have you ever felt stigma from someone in that environment?
A few years ago, yes, for sure. There were houses that wouldn't let me put my name on the door, here in the North: “You're crazy, the police are coming here to annoy you, they're naming drugs”, they said. They made a movie...

But that's only in the North, because in Lisbon nobody knows what Bezegol means!
Yes, but I'm talking about twenty-odd years ago. Sometimes they said it was because it attracted gandos, but most people don't even realize what it means and my career is not just about being 'high' or smoking cannabis, of course. But there are still situations where they put you out there because you're smoking a joint, that in the music business happens to packages. There are people who say, laughing: "Ah, BEZEGOL is coming, the smell will be there", a joke, that I don't give a shit... I'm not a hypocrite, I'm not that guy who is here giving the interview and then Go back there and buy a gram of coke to snort at the club tonight. But nowadays this is much more diluted. Fortunately, the stages we play are usually outdoors, you have a backstage just for you.

Do you smoke anywhere?
Respecting the space where I am, yes, of course. But I don't like going down Santa Catarina to smoke, because there it is, that's what I call unnecessary flags. A person's need to smoke cannabis cannot be so strong that they can't bear to reach a more sheltered place. So I don't smoke anywhere, but if I'm on an esplanade where they say I can smoke, then of course I have no problem showing up as a smoker. Now, showing up as an agitator… I don't think that solves anything. In this movement it is not agitators that we need.

What do we need?
This is what we really need (Cannadouro)! To show things with feet and head. Talking to Mr Goulão, who always has so much to say when he goes on television, saying that this is the devil and that it will devastate families... to the staff. I have friends my age who have to take sleeping pills or to walk around during the day, when we know that cannabis solves many of these problems, without causing addiction. Cannabis is not that addiction.
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*be·ze·goal
in Priberam Dictionary of the Portuguese Language

(obscure origin)
male name

[Portugal: Porto, Informal] A drug made from the resin of the inflorescences of Indian hemp that produces drowsiness or other alterations of the central nervous system. = hashish