Billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday adamantly denied using illegal drugs, after the Wall Street Journal published a scathing report detailing purported concerns among some high-level company executives about the SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s alleged illegal drug use.
The Journal reported Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, including at private parties around the world, where nondisclosure agreements are sometimes required to enter. The outlet cited “people who have witnessed his drug use and others with knowledge of it.”
Musk has used marijuana in public and has said publicly that he has a prescription for ketamine, the Journal also reported.
The article emphasized concerns among “some executives and board members” at Musk’s companies and among some people close to him who the outlet reported have come to believe some of Musk’s erratic behavior is, at least in part, driven by his alleged use of drugs.
In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Musk responded to a specific allegation from the Journal article, which reported that a turning point came in 2018, when Musk “got into trouble with NASA for smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan show, raising red flags for some about the business impact of Musk’s conduct and causing employees at SpaceX to be randomly tested for drugs.”
“After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASA’s request, to do 3 years of random drug testing,” Musk said Sunday.
“Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol,” he added.
Musk attacked the Journal as “not fit to line a parrot cage for bird [poop emoji].”
In a statement reported by the Journal, Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro also said Musk is “regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test.”
Spiro said “there are other false facts” in the article, but, according to the Journal, did not detail them.
Any illegal drug use would likely be in violation of federal policies and risk SpaceX’s government contracts, the Journal reported. The story noted that SpaceX is the only U.S. company approved to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station and that cooperation between the company and the Pentagon has only increased in recent years.
In a subsequent statement, the Journal said, “We stand by our reporting.”
The Hill has reached out to NASA, Tesla and SpaceX for comment.
— Updated at 4:31 p.m.
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