Elon Musk allegedly created a culture where friends and colleagues were "expected" to consume drugs with him, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

The billionaire's use of illegal drugs is also common knowledge among current and former SpaceX and Tesla directors, WSJ alleged.

Illegal drug use

The drugs Musk allegedly used include cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, and magic mushrooms, WSJ reported in January 2024.

Musk also recreationally used ketamine, for which he has a prescription, according to WSJ.

Many of these drugs were allegedly often consumed at private parties.

Some of Musk's friends and directors claimed that they felt they had to take illegal drugs with Musk, as it could otherwise upset the billionaire, WSJ reported, citing some of the people involved.

They also supposedly did not want to risk "losing the social capital" that comes from being in his circle, WSJ added.

Some concerns were expressed about the "volume" of Musk's alleged illegal drug use and that he allegedly used these drugs with some of his board members, WSJ reported, citing people who have witnessed the alleged drug use or were briefed on it.

Has never failed a drug test

Musk and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, did not respond to WSJ's request for comment.

However, in response to the earlier WSJ article about Musk's alleged consumption of illegal drugs, Spiro said that Musk is "regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test".

However, according to WSJ, the Tesla board has supposedly not carried out any investigations on the matter, nor did it record down any concerns in official board minutes, which could become public.

Strict anti-drug policies

Some of Musk's board members expressed concerns about the negative impact Musk's alleged behaviour could bring to the six companies he oversees and the roughly US$800 billion (S$1 trillion) in assets held by investors, WSJ wrote, citing people close to the billionaire.

The six companies Musk oversees are Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), The Boring Co, Neuralink, and xAI.

The use of illegal drugs violates the strict anti-drug policies at Musk's companies.

It could also put SpaceX's federal contracts and Musk's security clearance at risk, according to WSJ.

"Whatever I'm doing, I should obviously keep doing it"

While Musk has not addressed WSJ's allegations directly, he has alluded to the newspaper's claim on X (formerly Twitter).

In January, he asserted that he and all employees of SpaceX "passed random drug testing for years".

In another post, he said that he was able to lead Tesla and SpaceX to be the world's most valuable companies in their respective fields despite allegedly using drugs.

"Whatever I'm doing, I should obviously keep doing it," he said.

In another post, Musk said "if drugs actually helped improve my net productivity over time, I would definitely take them!"

Top image via Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images.