Elon Musk Says Government Made Him Take Random Drug Tests After Going Viral for Smoking on Joe Rogan’s Show

Thursday was a big day for people in need of footage showing several hours of Elon Musk talking.

As Full Send fans have been celebrating in recent days, the team was indeed able to secure an extended interview with the SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO, resulting in a three-hour video (see above) during which a number of Musk-centered and Musk-adjacent topics were discussed.

Of particular interest for those familiar with Musk’s previous podcast appearances, most notably his viral weed puff moment on Joe Rogan’s show, are the latest reflective remarks about marijuana law and his personal thoughts on how it should be handled.

After some talk about Brittney Griner’s detainment in Russia, Musk reiterated (around the 28:15 mark) his stance that people should “not be in jail” for any nonviolent drug-related crimes. From there, attention turned to the Rogan moment, with Musk noting it was simply “one puff” but still had a far-reaching impact.

“I did get a lot of backlash because it’s like, still, federally illegal,” he told the Full Send podcast team. “It’s pretty nutty actually. … I had to have, like, random drug tests and stuff after that to prove that I’m not, like, a drug addict.”

Asked to clarify who required such testing, which Musk later noted included other SpaceX staff, it was revealed that the federal government stepped in.

“The federal government, because SpaceX has a federal government contract and it’s still illegal federally,” Musk said. “So, like, the SpaceX competitors were like, ‘Hey, why aren’t you doing anything? Look at him smoking, just brazenly smoking weed.’”

In fact, Musk says, he was tested “for everything” for an entire year. He also said he didn’t expect the level of backlash he received for the viral 2018 incident, which he agreed could mostly be attributed to older people in power who are still “uptight” about such issues. Musk also reminded viewers and listeners he has “no joint-smoking skills,” pointing to the moment in question as indicative of this.

Elsewhere, Musk expressed support for the benefits of psychedelics and shared his opinion that weed itself is “not that good for productivity.”

Other topics given some time in the lengthy Musk chat include the possibility of extraterrestrial life (Musk says he’s seen “no evidence of aliens”), World War III now being “a little more probable these days,” and more. Musk also spoke on Russian President Vladimir Putin, again mentioning his previously-reported-on challenge of an “MMA style” fight.

See the full thing above.