Elon Musk’s history with drugs—from marijuana to ketamine—has been widely documented, and this month has brought new reports suggesting his use of mind-altering substances is more evasive than previously known.
Musk is hardly the only CEO who has used drugs while also carrying out a job that many in the business world regard as a 24-7 responsibility. While drug use can be viewed as a personal or mental health issue, it's also a matter of legitimate matter of concern for boards and shareholders. In interviews with Fortune, corporate governance experts offered insights on when things may have have gone too far—and what companies need to do in response.
'A serious thing no matter how you look at it'
As a corporate executive, Musk has frequently cultivated the image of a rebel who defies social norms—including when it comes to drug use. In 2018, he famously smoked marijuana during a videotaped podcast with Joe Rogan. That same year, Tesla board members expressed concern over Musk’s use of recreational drugs and Ambien, the New York Times reported. This June, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk takes Ketamine, and he later confessed on X to having a prescription for it “for when my brain chemistry sometimes goes super negative.”
Earlier this week, SpaceX published an hour-long video of a 2017 staff meeting in which Musk’s “cringeworthy” behavior, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, may have been influenced by drugs. (He later said his actions captured in the video were due to a lack of sleep.) The Journal alleges that Musk—the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and xAI; the founder of the Boring Company; and the owner of X, formerly Twitter—has ingested mind-altering substances such as LSD and cocaine, including on at least one occasion with a SpaceX board member.
“It’s a serious thing no matter how you look at it,” Charles Elson, founding director of the Weinberg Center for corporate governance at the University of Delaware, told Fortune. “Any time you take a substance that impairs your judgment, that is a problem for any company. If they are paying [Musk] to be a CEO 24-7—which they are—then anything that significantly impairs judgment is a problem.”
In 2022, about 25% of Americans 12 or older reported using illicit drugs over the previous year, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, with marijuana the most commonly used substance. And Musk certainly wouldn’t be the first high-profile executive to find himself in such a situation:
- Audrey Gelman, cofounder and ex-CEO of The Wing, a coworking space for women that shut down in 2022, was open about her struggles with addiction in 2019, Business Insider reported. Gelman has since founded The Six Bells, a home goods store.
- Steve Madden, the American shoe designer, resigned as CEO of Steve Madden Ltd. in 2001, and, the next year, was convicted of stock manipulation, money laundering, and securities fraud. His struggles with drug and alcohol abuse were documented in the film Maddman: The Steve Madden Story.
- Jimmy Cayne, the former CEO of Bear Stearns and a talented bridge player, was playing at tournaments in March 2008 while the investment bank was imploding, Fortune reported. The firm eventually was sold to JPMorgan Chase at $2 a share. (Cayne was chairman at this time). Cayne allegedly smoked pot at the tournaments but denied doing so to Fortune. He died in December 2021.
Tesla and SpaceX did not return messages seeking comment.
Time for a 'come-to-Jesus meeting'
While many areas of society still frown on drug use, mind-altering substances have become more commonplace in high-flying Silicon Valley and the startup sector. Some tech executives extol the virtues of drugs like Ketamine and LSD as a means to break down barriers in their minds, according to the Journal. Sergey Brin, a cofounder of Google, is said to enjoy magic mushrooms.
But not everyone agrees. The Weinberg Center's Elson said the claim that using drugs or psychedelics will somehow make an executive a better CEO as “hogwash.”
“Anything that impairs judgment and is potentially fatal is bad news—that’s why it’s illegal,” he said. “Companies are supposed to respect the law. A CEO of a company, if they don’t respect the law in that regard, how would they respect it in other ways? There is no legitimate way to defend illegal drug use. There just isn’t.”
It also presents a glaring double standard: If someone working in a Tesla factory was openly using illegal substances during a shift, they’d almost certainly be terminated, Elson added.
William Klepper, a management professor at Columbia Business School, said in an email to Fortune that it’s time for the Tesla board to fulfill its fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders and have a “come-to-Jesus meeting” with Musk.
Additionally, Klepper wrote, SpaceX is a federal contractor and must comply with the Drug-Free Workplace Act, which requires drug testing. "It is time for 'Tough Love in the Boardroom,’” Klepper added.
Alex Spiro, Musk’s attorney, did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment. Spiro told the WSJ that his client is “regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test.”
It's very unlikely anything will change at Musk's companies, Elson said. He expects the boards of the companies will just keep sitting on their hands.
"They will not do anything, sadly," Elson told Fortune. "They’re fearful of being accused of interfering with a genius."
