(Observer News)
The Wall Street Journal of the United States quoted witnesses and people familiar with the matter on January 6 as saying that Musk, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who owns six companies including Tesla and SpaceX, is believed to have illegally abused drugs, including LSD. Hallucinogens, cocaine, ecstasy, "psychedelic mushrooms" and ketamine (commonly known as "k powder") have caused concern among some executives and board members. Musk's lawyer denied this, and Musk himself has not yet responded.
According to reports, Musk’s history of inappropriate drug use can be traced back to 2018, when he took multiple tablets of LSD at a party in Los Angeles. The following year, he took "psychedelic mushrooms" at an event in Mexico. In addition, Musk also took illegal drugs with Steve Jurvetson, now a SpaceX and former Tesla board member.
As a corporate executive and founder, Musk’s whereabouts are mysterious and protected by bodyguards. The private parties he attends are usually very private, and participants must sign a confidentiality agreement or hand over their mobile phones to enter. According to people close to Musk, Musk often attends the annual "Burning Man" party in Nevada, where people often smoke drugs to vent their emotions. And drug use was common at his own private events.
Musk Data Map Image Source: Visual China
The Wall Street Journal disclosed in June last year that Musk used trace amounts of ketamine to treat depression and took full doses of ketamine at parties as a pastime. People familiar with his drug use said Musk and his brother Kimball often attended the same parties and events, including a party at the Art Basel Fair in Miami in late 2021, when both took ketamine. .
reported that his brother Kimball had talked with friends about the benefits of psychedelics and supported the use of psychedelics for mental health treatment. After the "Wall Street Journal" report was published in June last year, Musk himself responded by saying that compared with more widely used antidepressants that can "zombie" people, the hallucinogen-like ketamine is better. Treatment methods, he has used such prescription drugs.
Musk did not respond to the Wall Street Journal’s request for comment. So far, Musk himself has not yet responded to this report. Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, who represents Tesla, said Musk “regularly undergoes drug testing at SpaceX and has never failed a test.” He said there were "other false narratives" in the Wall Street Journal report, but did not elaborate.
Executives privately voiced concerns
Some Tesla board members have spoken for years about their concerns about Musk's alleged drug use, but never formally said anything that would be retained in the minutes, people familiar with Tesla board discussions said speech in. According to the report, at Tesla, although directors will not specifically ask about drug abuse, current board chairman James Murdoch and others sometimes gather together during board breaks or after meetings. Kimball, who is a director, asked insinuatingly how Musk was doing or whether he was getting enough sleep.
Musk is famous for his erratic behavior, and people around him have long been accustomed to it. However, according to reports, some SpaceX executives who have worked with Musk for a long time still felt that something was wrong with him at a company event at the end of 2017. At that time, Musk was nearly an hour late for a company-wide meeting attended by hundreds of people. He was still slurred when he took the stage to speak. He repeatedly called the "big falcon rocket" during his 15-minute speech. In order to "big f-ing rocket", SpaceX President Shotwell finally had to step in and take over the meeting.
It is unclear whether Musk was under the influence of drugs at the time, but after the meeting, SpaceX executives privately discussed their concerns about Musk's illegal use of drugs. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that part of the issue that directors have been grappling with for years is whether Musk’s unusual behavior is due to drug use or other reasons such as lack of sleep.Musk, who currently oversees six companies, has said he often sleeps in his office, emails his staff in the middle of the night and hosts midnight work meetings.
In Musk's authorized biography of the same name, published in September last year, author Walter Isaacson mentioned that Musk would enter a "devil mode" of intense anger, often lashing out at employees and executives. "I really don't like the illegal use of drugs," Isaacson quotes Musk as saying in the book.
Some people, including Musk himself, attribute his erratic behavior to psychological issues. In 2017, a Twitter user asked Musk if he suffered from bipolar disorder. Musk responded in the affirmative but said he had not yet been diagnosed. When Musk hosted the variety show "Saturday Night Live" in 2021, he said that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder.
May jeopardize tens of billions of dollars in contracts
According to reports, people close to Musk revealed that they are worried that Musk’s long-term improper use of drugs will not only have a significant impact on his health, it will also have a significant impact on the six companies he oversees and Billions of assets were damaged. The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the illegal use of drugs is likely to violate U.S. federal policy, thereby jeopardizing SpaceX’s more than $14 billion in civilian and military space mission contracts with the U.S. government.
's contract with the U.S. government requires companies to comply with the drug-free workplace act and foster a drug-free culture through programs and policies regardless of whether state laws permit drug use. According to Tesla's code of conduct, the company is supposed to be a drug-free workplace and all employees, including executives, are prohibited from using drugs, even outside the office.
As CEO and founder of SpaceX, Musk has security clearance to access confidential information. The Wall Street Journal analyzed that companies may lose government security clearances because of employee "substance abuse," that is, using illegal drugs or prescription drugs "in a manner that deviates from approved medical directions."
In August 2018, Musk stated on Twitter at the time that he planned to sell Tesla at a price of $420 per share (the number "420" has a special meaning in cannabis culture and is used to refer to smoking marijuana). The tweet caused an uproar among investors. Not long after, Musk publicly smoked a marijuana cigarette handed to him by the host during a guest appearance on the show, admitting that he "should have smoked it once" before.
Although it only took a deep breath, Musk's security clearance was scrutinized because Musk's SpaceX has multiple valuable contracts with the US Air Force. According to a letter sent to SpaceX by NASA and federal contract records, SpaceX was required to provide written assurances of compliance with the Drug-Free Workplace Act and conduct drug testing for a year, and NASA provided $500 Tens of thousands of dollars in government funding to train SpaceX employees.
The US biweekly website believed at the time that the review was unlikely to change SpaceX’s relationship with the Air Force, but it could change Musk’s role in the company, “or affect Musk’s status as CEO and his The extent to which you can participate in certain projects."
This move also caused controversy on the Internet. Some people mentioned that marijuana has been legalized in California and other places in the United States. However, some people believed that Musk represented Tesla in the interview and violated the Tesla employee code of business conduct and ethics. Specifications. Coupled with the fact that the company was being privatized and executives were leaving, Tesla's stock price fell by 10%, approaching its lowest level in 2018.
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