"I had to have, like, random drug tests and stuff after that."
Blaze It
Somehow, Elon Musk's 2018 blunt rip on Joe Rogan's show is still making news — but mostly because the Tesla CEO can't stop talking about it.
In a lengthy interview on the "Full Send Podcast," the billionaire claimed that after he was filmed smoking a fat joint on Rogan's podcast, the federal government began to administer "random" drug tests on him.
"I had to have, like, random drug tests and stuff after that," Musk told one of the podcast hosts, "to prove that I'm not, like, a drug addict."
Elon Musk Got Drug Tested by the FEDs After Smoking on the Joe Rogan Pod pic.twitter.com/cnsYMEiYde
— Full Send Podcast (@fullsendpodcast) August 5, 2022
High Consequences
He went on to explain that "because SpaceX has federal contracts" and that cannabis is "still illegal federally," the toke heard round the world allegedly upset federal regulators — though, according to Musk, it was his companies' competitors that put the government up to it.
"The SpaceX competitors were like 'why aren't you doing anything? Look at him brazenly smoking weed on Joe Rogan's podcast,'" Musk said in an apparent impression of his unnamed rivals.
"Unfortunately it wasn't just me," he claimed, "but the whole company, the whole of SpaceX, had to have random drug tests."
Although these claims might sound exaggerated, it's not entirely unheard of given that as a company with large grants from the US government, SpaceX is legally bound to uphold a "drug-free workplace" per the Drugfree Workplace Act of 1988.
Musk did not cite which agency or agencies conducted the random drug testing, though the law is enforced by the Department of Health's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and is, per guidelines listed by SpaceX's fellow federal contractor ThermoFisher Scientific, administered via urine test.
Futurism has reached out to SAMHSA and SpaceX for comment.
Free Them All
In the interview, Musk also reiterated an apparently long-held belief that people should not be imprisoned for cannabis or other "non-violent drug crimes" — and joked about how crappy he was and remains at smoking pot.
"I don't even know how to smoke a joint, obviously," he laughed. "I mean look at me, I have no joint-smoking skills."
No arguments from us there.
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