NASA Clears Elon Musk’s SpaceX of Suspected Drug Use

After a major media outlet sounded the alarm about Elon Musk’s suspected psychedelic use, officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) were called in, but quickly cleared the billionaire’s company of wrongdoing. This is just the latest round of NASA safety reviews of SpaceX after a series of pot- and psychedelic-related stunts by Musk.

Thanks to a Jan. 6 explosive, snitchy report in The Wall Street Journal about Elon Musk’s alleged rap sheet of drug use, including ketamine, LSD, cocaine, MDMA, and shrooms, NASA was forced to investigate. The Wall Street Journal raised concern about Musk’s “mental-health issues” in its report, supposedly linking it to psychedelic drug use in the workplace.

Business Insider reports that the WSJ revealed that some executives at SpaceX said they were troubled by Musk’s erratic behavior at a 2017 all-hands meeting when he allegedly “slurred his words and rambled for around 15 minutes.” Two days later, SpaceX released a video recording of one of its all-hands meetings from the same year at X. It’s not clear if that’s the same meeting, but it was obviously posted as a response to the WSJ story.

In SpaceX’s video of the 2017 all-hands meeting, Musk stumbles over his words, and in one instance, he confused the day for Friday instead of Tuesday and announced incorrect timing for a series of SpaceX launches. SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwellb corrected him twice in the video.

But in the video, he explained that he was deprived of sleep. “Sorry, I’m like slurring my words and I want to try to enunciate my words,” Musk says at another point. “Sorry, I got almost no sleep last night, brain’s not working properly.”

Musk slammed The Wall Street Journal on X, tweeting, “After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASA’s request, to do 3 years of random drug testing. Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol. 

“The Wall Street Journal is not fit to line a parrot cage for bird.”

It’s not the first time the publication has come after him for the same reason: The Wall Street Journal reported in a juicy article last July that Musk was taking ketamine.

“The agency does not have evidence of non-compliance from SpaceX on how the company addresses the drug- and alcohol-free workforce regulations,” the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Thursday in a statement. “We expect our commercial partners to meet all workplace safety requirements in the execution of those missions and the services they provide the American people.”

Since buying Twitter, Musk changed its name to X, changed the concept of verified accounts with a blue check mark, and reinstated controversial accounts such as Donald Trump’s account, or suspected Neo Nazi accounts.

The Blunt that Started it All

Most of these controversies surrounding drug use can be traced back to a single incident nearly six years ago, when NASA and government officials lost their minds after he smoked a blunt on camera.

Musk shared a blunt with Joe Rogan on his show in 2018, shocking Tesla investors in the process. The high-profile smoke session was live streamed via YouTube on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Musk also reportedly sipped whiskey during the recording of Rogan’s podcast, which included conversation about luxury watches, artificial intelligence, and Mars.

Rogan and Musk had been talking for about two hours when the show’s host pulled out a blunt to smoke, explaining that it was “marijuana inside of tobacco,” according to media reports.

“I think I tried it once,” Musk replied.

Before taking a hit, Musk clarified with Rogan that he would not be breaking the law.

“I mean, it’s legal, right?” he asked.

High Times’ Jimi Devine asked if that was the most expensive blunt of all time—given the safety review SpaceX was forced to undergo because of the blunt.

NASA ended up paying SpaceX $5 Million to conduct the review, and it was the first time it’s been reported that taxpayers footed the bill for it. Boeing, SpaceX’s rivals in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program outsourced trips to the space station so the agency can focus its time on more distant efforts like Mars, were also forced to go through a review.

The Washington Post reported last fall that the reviews would take months and involve hundreds of interviews that would dive into the workplace culture at SpaceX and Boeing. 

Musk also tweeted last year that the test flight of SpaceX’s highly anticipated Starship rocket—eventually en route to the moon and Mars—was delayed from its original launch date on April 19, 2023, and rescheduled for a new day, April 20. It’s the second time he’s joked about the holiday on social media.

On August 7, 2018, Musk tweeted he was mulling over taking Tesla private, quoting a price of $420 per share for the buyout.