Did Elon Musk Smoke Weed? The Story Behind His Viral Cannabis Moment

Yes — once, on camera, in early September 2018, on the Joe Rogan Experience. It lasted a few seconds. The clip became one of the most-watched moments in podcast history, cost shareholders billions on paper, and triggered federal reviews that most people have forgotten about entirely.

Here is what actually happened, what followed, and what Musk has said about it since.

What happened on the podcast

Joe Rogan Experience episode #1169 was a long, wide-ranging conversation covering artificial intelligence, Tesla, simulation theory, and Musk's habit of tweeting at three in the morning. It was recorded in California, where adult-use cannabis had been legal since voters approved Proposition 64 in November 2016.

Late in the episode, Rogan lit a joint — by his own description a mix of marijuana and tobacco — and passed it to Musk. Musk's question became the line everyone remembers: "Is that a joint or is it a cigar?" Rogan explained what it was, and Musk took a single puff before passing it back. He also sipped whiskey during the conversation, which was broadly reported at the time.

That is the whole of it. One puff, on camera, of a joint he did not roll and had asked about first. Reporting framed it as "one hit off a joint," and the video makes the brevity obvious. What made it extraordinary was not the quantity but the audience.

The clip was cut and posted within hours. "Elon Musk smokes weed on the Joe Rogan podcast" became a headline that outlived the episode itself, and #1169 remains among the most-viewed installments in the show's history.

The fallout: Tesla

The market reaction was immediate and disproportionate to one puff.

• Tesla shares fell roughly 9% on the following trading day, wiping several billion dollars from the company's market value.
• Two senior executives resigned around the same week, adding to the sense that the company was unstable at the top.
• It landed in the worst stretch of Musk's tenure. The episode followed the August 2018 "funding secured" tweet, and preceded the SEC lawsuit that Musk and Tesla settled in late September 2018 with $20 million penalties each and Musk giving up the chairman role for three years. In between came a defamation fight and a candid newspaper interview about his exhaustion.

The important read on the stock move is that investors were pricing chief-executive behaviour risk, not cannabis risk. In that context, one puff was evidence in a broader argument about judgment rather than a comment on drug policy.

The fallout that mattered more: clearance and contracts

This is the part that rarely makes the retrospective coverage, and it is the part most relevant to anyone working in a regulated cannabis or government-facing industry.

SpaceX is a federal contractor with classified programmes, and Musk holds a security clearance. A publicly documented drug event is a serious matter in that world — not because of state law, but because federal law, clearance adjudication guidelines, and contractor drug-free workplace requirements all apply regardless of what California allows.

What followed:

• The Air Force initially denied that it was reviewing his clearance in the days after the podcast, when Fox Business and CNBC reported otherwise.
• Reporting in 2019 said the Pentagon was reviewing his clearance in connection with the appearance, and that the Air Force had cited potential security risks in a decision on high-level access for Musk.
• NASA ordered a safety-culture review at SpaceX, which the agency linked to the podcast. It arrived at a moment when the agency was depending on SpaceX for Commercial Crew, and it added schedule pressure to a programme that was already slipping.
• Musk agreed to three years of random drug testing at NASA's request, which he confirmed publicly years later in response to press reporting.
• By his own account, the episode led to a year of random drug testing.

For a private individual, one puff in a state where cannabis was legal is a non-event. For the chief executive of a company whose revenue depends on federal contracts and whose employees work in drug-tested environments, it became an administrative problem with a multi-year tail.

What Musk has said since

Musk's consistent position is that cannabis was a one-off public moment rather than a habit. He has not campaigned for cannabis legalisation, and he has not presented himself as a user.

His acknowledged substance is ketamine, under prescription. In a March 2024 interview with Don Lemon, he described it in his own terms:

"There are times when I have sort of a… negative chemical state in my brain, like depression I guess, or depression that's not linked to any negative news, and ketamine is helpful for getting one out of the negative frame of mind."

He said he has a prescription from "an actual, real doctor" and takes "a small amount once every other week or something like that." Asked whether it could jeopardise his government contracts, he said he did not believe it would, and argued that if the treatment helps him, investors benefit from it continuing.

Separately, in January 2024, the Wall Street Journal published reporting alleging wider recreational drug use at social events, including LSD, cocaine, and ecstasy. Musk publicly disputed that reporting and pointed to the testing regime he had accepted at NASA's request.

The distinction is worth holding onto: prescribed ketamine for depression is a different question from recreational cannabis use, and Musk has answered them separately. It is why "did he smoke weed" has a precise answer while "does he use drugs" does not collapse into one.

Why this moment kept its cultural weight

1. The size of the platform. A few seconds of footage reached an audience in the tens of millions, far beyond any cannabis brand's marketing reach.
2. The CEO-as-brand effect. Musk's personal conduct moves Tesla's share price in a way that is unusual even among founder-led companies.
3. The federal dimension. For defence and space contractors, a public drug event has clearance and contracting consequences that private-sector executives simply do not face.
4. The alcohol comparison. He sipped whiskey in the same conversation to almost no comment. The asymmetry between the two substances — one legal and taxed, one federally controlled — is a useful illustration of how classification, not pharmacology, drives most drug policy.
5. Normalisation by accident. The clip is routinely cited in coverage of how mainstream cannabis has become, even though Musk never intended it as a statement about cannabis at all.

What the episode does not tell you

A few things are worth separating from the viral version:

• It does not mean he is a cannabis user or advocate. One puff, and no subsequent advocacy for legalisation.
• It does not mean he was intoxicated on camera. One hit, on a two-and-a-half-hour recording.
• It did not change his companies' compliance posture. Federal contractors working on classified or safety-sensitive programmes operate under drug-free workplace and testing requirements, and those did not loosen.
• It did not change federal law. Cannabis remained federally controlled then, and the tension between state-legal conduct and federal employment or clearance rules has not gone away — it is the same tension now being addressed through the rescheduling process, which we cover in our breakdown of Trump's cannabis policy record.

Frequently asked questions

Did Elon Musk smoke weed?

Yes, once publicly: he took a single puff from a joint on the Joe Rogan Experience in early September 2018.

Was it legal?

Under California law, yes — adult-use cannabis had been legal there since November 2016. Federal law was a different matter, and that is where the consequences came from.

Did Tesla's stock fall?

Yes, by about 9% the following trading day, alongside the departure of two senior executives that week.

Did it affect SpaceX?

Reporting indicates his security clearance drew Pentagon review, the Air Force cited the incident in a decision on high-level access, and NASA ordered a safety-culture review at SpaceX. Musk also agreed to three years of random drug testing at NASA's request.

Does he smoke cannabis now?

He has described it as a one-off rather than a habit and has not suggested otherwise since.

What does he actually use?

Prescribed ketamine, which he disclosed in March 2024 as a treatment for depressive episodes, taken in small amounts roughly every other week.

Did he inhale?

He took one hit from a joint Rogan described as marijuana mixed with tobacco, and passed it back.

Why did it become such a big story?

Because of the audience, the CEO-as-brand effect on Tesla's share price, and the federal clearance and contracting implications for SpaceX — not because of anything unusual about the quantity involved.

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This article summarises widely reported public events and Musk's own public statements, current as of 26 October 2026. It is provided for information only and is not legal advice or an endorsement of any political position.