Gigapress
Trying to be less wrong
Playing Devil's advocate here:
Cannabis remains illegal, as a Schedule 1 drug at the federal level. The executive branch of the federal government hasn't done much to enforce the law since the Obama administration, but it is still enforced for defense contractors such as SpaceX. Personally I thought the overreaction to Elon's puffing Joe Rogan's blunt was hilarious but at the same time it was definitely an unwise decision and put SpaceX contracts at risk.
Regarding the other alleged drugs Elon has supposedly used...
Many "professionals" (engineers, lawyers, doctors, managers, academics, etc.) use illicit drugs, but choose not to openly admit it in public, for obvious reasons. It's not crazy unlikely that any given person has used these substances.
During an interview at CodeCon 2021, Elon explicitly said that "people should be open to psychedelics" and that he anticipates "greater receptivity to the benefits of psychedelics" in the future.
He expressed similar opinions on the Full Send podcast last year.
San Francisco was the epicenter of the late 1960s counterculture revolution in the United States. No shortage of LSD at that time. The Bay Area remains on the extreme end of the political spectrum regarding drug legalization, especially psychedelics. The Bay Area cities of Oakland and Santa Cruz, in 2019 and 2020 respectively, became the first two jurisdictions in the US to decriminalize most types of psychedelics, and they remain some of the only jurisdictions in the US and the world to have done so. In 2022, California's state Senate had a bill proposed that would have decriminalized all psychedelics statewide. The bill's lead proponent was Senator Wiener, who represents the district encompassing San Francisco. It didn't go anywhere, but the fact that it was proposed at all should say something about local acceptance of these substances. Also, University of California - Berkeley, UC San Francisco and Stanford are currently among just a few universities in the world conducting scientific research into psychedelic pharmacology and medicine.
Psychedelic usage remains widespread in Silicon Valley as well. Steve Jobs, for example, said:
Back in 2014, Elon was among those getting a sneak preview of the HBO show Silicon Valley, and he criticized it for failing to accurately portray the culture:
Elon goes to Burning Man almost every year. Does attending Burning Man mean he himself has used? Not necessarily, and "guilt by association" isn't fair, but at a minimum it means he's been around other people doing it. It is not physically possible to go to a festival like Burning Man without at least observing some people using MDMA, LSD, psilocybin and ketamine. Solar City's origins started with Elon and his cousin Lyndon talking on their car ride to Burning Man in 2004.
Furthermore, the Musk Foundation in 2012 donated $10k to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which is the world's foremost philanthropic nonprofit organization whose mission is supporting scientific research, education, and legalization advocacy for psychedelics and marijuana. For example, currently they are undergoing Phase 3 trials with FDA oversight for usage of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for severe PTSD. Steven Mark Ryan, of Solving the Money Problem fame, has stated that one of his primary goals for his content creation and TSLA investing revenue is to make a large donation to MAPS, and his very first YouTube video was entitled Elon Musk's Psychedelic Secret, in which he lays out his reasons for speculating that Elon uses, or has used, psychedelics.
Elon also put a rave cave in the basement of a car factory. Nobody does that. Ostensibly it was an appeal to Berliner electronic music culture, but also again it indicates the Mr. Musk is someone who appreciates raves.
Also, two of the substances alleged by WSJ were psilocybin mushrooms and LSD, which are normally not included in drug tests such as those conducted by defense contractors on employees.
Furthermore, Elon is not religious. Statistically speaking, there is a strong negative correlation between religiosity and drug usage.
We also have this:
And this:
In light of the context and the breadcrumbs I've seen over the years, I am pretty confident the Elon is at least very aware of MDMA, LSD, ketamine and psilocybin or has people close to him who use them, and fairly confident the he has at least tried most or all of them in the past. Could be wrong, but that's my best guess.
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