The U.S. Air Force is looking into how to handle an incident where Tesla CEO Elon Musk apparently smoked weed on a podcast. Musk is also CEO of SpaceX, the space transportation company, which holds multiple military contracts. Marijuana use is prohibited for someone with a government security clearance, which Musk may have because of the contracts SpaceX has with the Air Force. It is not clear whether Musk has security clearance or not as CEO of SpaceX. An Air Force spokesperson, in a statement to CNBC, said: "We will need time to determine the facts and the appropriate process to handle the situation." A source on Friday told CNBC that the Air Force was looking into the matter on Musk following the podcast.<doc-sep>Just as the dust had settled in Elon Musk’s will-he-won’t-he take Tesla private drama, the electric car company ran into a new set of troubles. Much of the turmoil was driven by the chief executive himself. Here’s what happened: On Tuesday, BuzzFeed News published emails from Musk doubling down on his insistence that one of the Thai cave rescuers was indeed a pedophile who had moved to Thailand to take a child bride. (The rescuer has denied all of this, and Musk previously apologized for the accusation back in June.) Then on Thursday, Musk appeared on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast for a two-hour conversation in which he smoked what Rogan said was marijuana and drank whiskey. On Friday, two of Tesla’s top executives resigned. The US Air Force, which has multiple contracts with Musk’s SpaceX, reportedly began looking into Musk’s marijuana use, because it’s prohibited for someone with a government security clearance. The Air Force denied there’s an investigation and said it needs to determine “the facts and the appropriate process to handle the situation.” Tesla’s share price on Friday fell to almost its lowest point for the year. But shareholders have stayed engaged — despite Tesla’s production delays, cash troubles, and other setbacks — thanks in large part to the cult of Elon Musk. A lot of people believe in the South African-born entrepreneur’s genius and admire his off-the-cuff nature, and so they’re willing to give him leeway where they wouldn’t other executives. Tesla’s board seems aware of it, so they’ve kept him on — even as his behavior gets increasingly erratic. At some point, the question becomes: How much are investors and the board willing to tolerate? CEO and chair of General Motors Mary Barra would almost certainly be out of a job or at least reprimanded at GM, at what point is it too much from Musk? The week began with off-the-record confusion and renewed pedophilia accusations Musk’s rough week began when BuzzFeed News published emails Musk sent to one of its reporters, Ryan Mac, about accusations he made in July that one of the Thai cave rescuers, 63-year-old British cave diver Vern Unsworth, was a pedophile. Musk had previously apologized for the accusations, but he still appears to believe them. On August 30, Musk sent an email to Mac telling him to “call the people you know in Thailand, find out what’s going on and stop defending child rapists” and making a number of claims about Unsworth’s past. The email began with “off the record,” but Mac hadn’t agreed to the terms, meaning journalistically, Musk’s assertion didn’t really matter. Marina Koren at the Atlantic explained: In every case, the reporter and the source must come to an agreement about how the information will be used. In other words, Musk prefacing his comments with “off the record” doesn’t trigger a binding contract. As Mac said in one of his emails to Musk, “I didn’t agree for the conversation to be off the record, but appreciate the response.” Musk followed up with another email “on background” with the Unsworth accusations, which BuzzFeed also published. BuzzFeed informed Musk in subsequent emails that they hadn’t agreed to an off-record conversation, and the outlet ultimately notified him that they would publish a story containing his emails. Musk disagreed in yet another email that he declared “off the record” to which Mac did not consent. Mac documented much of the back-and-forth on Twitter. This was his response. Clearly he disagreed with my assessment of what defines "off the record" as is taught my most journalism schools. We ultimately notified his representatives that we would be running a story and we stand by it. pic.twitter.com/jdmLSIoNR9 — Ryan Mac (@RMac18) September 5, 2018 Musk has a fraught relationship with the media. Earlier this year, he launched a Trump-like war on the media over negative coverage of Tesla. The BuzzFeed incident is likely to fuel his anger even more. Moreover, it’s clear he hasn’t dropped the pedophile claims despite his July apology. Unsworth has denied all of Musk’s accusations. The week ended with weed smoking and resignations Musk’s week went from bad to worse on Thursday when he appeared on Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. While the conversation touched on a number of topics, including artificial intelligence, robots, and social media, it was Musk’s marijuana smoking that garnered the most attention. During the podcast, which was streamed live, Rogan lit a spliff, and Musk asked what it is. Rogan replied that it’s marijuana inside of tobacco. Rogan said Musk probably couldn’t smoke it, “because of stockholders,” and Musk replied asking whether it was legal. (In California, where they were taping, it is.) After Rogan assured him it was legal, Musk took a drag. Simulation update: Elon Musk smoked weed on the Joe Rogan podcast pic.twitter.com/Cg94FGFfwy — Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) September 7, 2018 “How does that work? Do people get upset at you if you do certain things?” Rogan asked as Musk smoked. The answer, as it would turn out, is yes. Shares of Tesla plummeted by as much as 9 percent on Friday and closed the day down 6 percent at $263.24. (For comparison, Tesla’s stock’s high point in the past year is $389.61.) It’s not clear how much Musk’s marijuana smoking contributed to the plunge because two of Tesla’s top executives — chief accounting officer Dave Morton and HR chief Gaby Toledano — also said they were exiting the company on Friday. Morton, who had been at Tesla for just a month, said the “level of public attention” and pace at the company “exceeded [his] expectations.” Toledano had been on leave for a few months already. Smoking marijuana isn’t exactly the end of the world — while it’s federally illegal, it’s legal in many states, including California, and an estimated 55 million US adults use marijuana. And this isn’t the first indication Musk might be into weed. When he tweeted in August that he was going to take Tesla private, he said he would do it at $420 a share, a number often associated with marijuana.<doc-sep>Welcome to Midnight Mania! UFC color commentator Joe Rogan had controversial billionaire, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk, on his popular podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, and had Musk smoke a blunt for what was probably his first time. Elon Musk smoking a blunt for the first time on Joe Rogan's podcast is Internet gold pic.twitter.com/nx8zQ7HlyB — gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 7, 2018 He and Musk talked about AI’s impact on humankind, Musk’s decision to make and sell flamethrowers, and social media. Musk is notable for his accessibility on Twitter, and recently has been in the news for making unfounded claims on Twitter about having funding secured to take Tesla private (he didn’t) and calling one of the consultants in the rescue of the Thai children a pedophile after the consultant disparaged his experimental submarine. Musk, spent 2.5hrs on the Josh Rogan podcast smoking a joint and discussing everything from AI and its impact on humankind to flame throwers and social media. His shares plummeted 8%>This was an expensive bender... https://t.co/77P2HAnhCL — Clive Lewis (@labourlewis) September 7, 2018 Related Donald Cerrone Tells The Tale Of Almost Dying While Cave Diving Musk is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, and the CEO of Tesla, Inc., which makes electric cars. The Air Force, which partners with SpaceX, is apparently ‘looking into’ the puff on the blunt, though there is no investigation as yet. It really doesn’t seem that serious, although this Twitter user pointed out that Tesla drug tests their workers, which comes across as hypocritical. USADA also still bans weed for UFC fighters as a performance enhancer (how?) which seems backwards. Morning. Elon Musk hitting a blunt on a podcast, while Telsa drug tests its workers, highlights the fact that marijuana use is normalized for the affluent and not an option for everyday workers in their careers. Don't let these people fool you into believing you can do this too. — Trish ♛ (@StilettoRoyalty) September 7, 2018 Also... did he even inhale? ? Elon Musk doesn’t know how to inhale cause he only uses Tesla’s self-smoking bong https://t.co/8MV9wcTAzB — Angela Hill (@AngieOverkill) September 8, 2018 UFC featherweight champion Cris “Cyborg’ Santos sent a message to Musk, saying her Tesla is in the shop waiting for parts that have no ETA as yet. You can watch the entire episode here: Insomnia What exactly was Darren Till eating? Just straight meat sauce? I only had limited time, so I unfortunately was unable to ask a follow up question to this strange response from Darren Till. I've been thinking about it all night. pic.twitter.com/htI8IVKYjQ — Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) September 8, 2018 UFC commentator Jon Anik stuck up for now deposed champion Nicco Montano. Fighting Valentina Shevchenko is no picnic, but the notion that champion Nicco Montaño was scared to fight her is absurd. We sat down with Nicco yesterday. She was confident, thoughtful, a picture of focus. Not sure what went wrong, but let's give the athlete some respect... — Jon Anik (@Jon_Anik) September 7, 2018 The UFC have become very impatient with any fighters who cannot meet their scheduling demands. First Tony Ferguson, then Colby Covington, now Nicco Montano is stripped because she was hospitalized trying to make weight. This is as good a time as any to remind everyone that UFC titles aren’t ‘real’ in any legal sense, the way boxing titles are legal by virtue of sanctioning bodies, to prevent promoters like the UFC developing a monopoly on title belts (Officially, the UFC says their belts are handed out to the best fighters on the night). Fighters, therefore, don’t have any right to them and the UFC can strip them at their own convenience. It’s a shame for Montano, who grew up on a Native reservation in incredibly tough circumstances and was a huge inspiration to her community after winning the belt. BREAKING: Dana White tells @TSN_Sports that the UFC women's flyweight title is now vacant. Valentina Shevchenko will fight an opponent to be determined at a later date. They have an opponent in mind, but nothing is confirmed. — Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) September 7, 2018 Seeing Montano get stripped of her belt after Covington's was taken makes me wonder how the UFC expects any fighter to take the journey to holding a championship or interim belt serious if they can be stripped at any time to accommodate the UFC's entertainment desire? — Leslie Smith (@LeslieSmith_GF) September 8, 2018 Speaking of how the UFC treats their fighters, these are explosive allegations from author and presidential hopeful Andrew Yang. He claims Dana White’s personal relationship with Trump had bearing on the NLRB’s reversal of their own decision to move Leslie Smith’s case forward to review. (1/2) UFC fighters are getting totally screwed. Many receive as little as $12k a fight as 1099s. They pay taxes, travel, coach fees out of pocket. Meanwhile, the UFC is valued at $7b. One fighter tried to stand up, got fired, and now Trump is involved in blocking her petition. pic.twitter.com/Ja6VquGytV — Andrew Yang (@AndrewYangVFA) September 6, 2018 Melvin Guillard may have trouble winning fights in the cage these days, but don’t come at him on the streets. Damn Young Assassin. pic.twitter.com/vhUZuuNh0Y — Best Fight Picks (@BestFightPicks) September 7, 2018 Alrighty then. Darren Till was a grumpy kid until he made weight today, but he did prove the doubters wrong, after all. Lando Vannata breaking shit. Would you wear this on a shirt? That would be a worthy battle. Michael Chandler and Tony Ferguson should compete in an extreme workout competition or something. All of the sudden I need to see Chandler fight Tony Ferguson. https://t.co/4OgmD6vJ4S — Flyin' Brian J (@FlyinBrianJ) September 6, 2018 Hector Lombard is into Adidas now. UFC Athlete Hector Lombard Boycotts Nike https://t.co/ve7vDFWu0v via @YouTube — ZombieProphet (@GIFsZP) September 7, 2018 Who is betting on Darren Till? Update: Darren Till (-140) is now the betting favorite for Saturday’s UFC welterweight title fight v. champion Tyron Woodley (+110). Oh boy. #UFC228 — Jon Anik (@Jon_Anik) September 6, 2018 John Lineker wants the toughest fights.<doc-sep>Elon Musk smokes marijuana with Joe Rogan's during a taping of Rogan's podcast show. Source: YouTube Shares of Tesla plunged as much as 9 percent Friday after news of a pair of C-suite executive resignations and a bizarre video showing CEO Elon Musk smoking pot on a podcast, capping a tumultuous month since Musk launched the company into controversy with a take-private tweet. The stock opened Friday's session at $260.10 before paring losses slightly. Shares were roughly 7 percent down after the first hour of trading, closing down 6 percent. It extends a painful week for the automaker. As of Friday's close, the stock lost more than 11 percent on the week. Late Thursday, Musk smoked marijuana and sipped whiskey during an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast — fueling concerns about his recreational drug use. Friday morning, the company revealed its chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, had resigned as of Tuesday, citing intense public attention. He had been at the company for only one month. "Since I joined Tesla on August 6, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations," Morton said in a statement. "As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future." The company's HR chief, Gaby Toledano, is also leaving the company, Bloomberg reported Friday. Toledano had been on leave since before the electric car maker was rocked by messy take-private conversations and potential SEC probes, Bloomberg previously reported, and she will not return from leave. A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately return request for comment regarding Toledano's standing at the company. Friday is also the last day at the company for Sarah O'Brien, Tesla's vice president of communications, per a planned departure. Earlier this week Musk resurfaced a conflict with a British cave explorer who assisted in rescuing a boy's soccer team from a Thai cave earlier this year. Musk called cave diver Vernon Unsworth a "child rapist" in an email to BuzzFeed News, intensifying previous attacks in which Musk called Unsworth a "pedo guy" and tweeted that it was "strange" that Unsworth had not sued him for the July comments. All of that comes exactly one month after Musk shot off a controversial tweet saying he was "considering taking Tesla private." Musk floated a take-private price of $420 — roughly a 20 percent upside from the stock's levels at the time — and claimed he had the "funding secured." Company updates and news reports in the weeks that followed poked holes in Musk's proposal, though, and Tesla formally called off the take-private talks in late August. Friday's plunge puts Tesla stock more than 30 percent off its all-time intraday high of $389.61. The stock has lost more than 20 percent of its value since market close on Aug. 7. —CNBC's Ryan Browne contributed to this report. WATCH: Tesla and Elon Musk's wild August — in nine minutes<doc-sep>
After a full day of the internet intimately dissecting Elon Musk’s pot use, reports began to surface that the US Air Force has opened an investigation into the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s drug habit, since SpaceX is a government launch provider. However, an Air Force official tells The Verge that those reports are premature and that the military hasn’t figured out what it’s going to do. “It’s inaccurate that there is an investigation. We’ll need time to determine the facts and the appropriate process to handle the situation,” an Air Force spokesperson told The Verge. This Week in Elon This Week in Elon was a limited-run newsletter that is occasionally revived when there’s Too Much News. You can subscribe here. It’s just one of hundreds of stories that have popped up in the aftermath of Musk smoking weed on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. And at first it makes some kind of sense: SpaceX launches satellites for the US Air Force after all, and the use of marijuana is prohibited for those in the military and people with government security clearances. Fox Business’ Charles Gasparino tweeted that the US Air Force had begun to look into Elon Musk’s smoking, and a story from CNBC then followed. It seems that the initial reports surfaced simply because Gasparino had asked the office about it in the first place, and the Air Force suggested it would follow up with the inquiry. The story grew from there, and now it appears the Air Force is going to spend its weekend like the rest of us: overthinking a billionaire taking one weak puff from a joint. It’s possible we’ll hear more about a formal investigation next week, but just like Musk’s appearance on the podcast, it could turn out to be a bunch of smoke and no fire. (I’m sorry, it turns out there actually was fire.)