Smoking Weed on a National Podcast Not a Good Idea

Most business owners and CEOs performing work on DoD classified contracts know smoking weed is not a smart thing to do because it could result in revocation of their security clearance, as well as the company’s facility clearance. Elon Musk must of missed that part of his security briefing when he was granted a clearance by the DoD CAF on behalf of the Air Force. As you may have heard in the news, in September Musk was on The Joe Rogan Experience two hour podcast and took part in drinking whiskey and smoking pot. Now, some will say this took place in California where marijuana use is legal, therefore he did nothing wrong. However, as we all know, eligibility to hold a security clearance falls under federal adjudicative guidelines and marijuana is still an illegal drug.

The interesting part to all this is the Air Force did not suspend his eligibility pending an investigation into whether he actually did smoke pot on the show. It would probably be safe to bet money had Musk been Joe Somebody Else on the flight line or working on a base somewhere the Air Force would have been quick to yank his access eligibility.

So, entering the stage is NASA, who reminded Musk that type of behavior is not conducive to working on government contracts. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine held a news conference In Washington, D.C. and publicly chided Musk’s behavior. This news conference was related to NASA announcing it was conducting a workplace safety review of two major aerospace contractors and their adherence to drug-free work environment policies. Both companies have multiple contracts with NASA to launch astronauts back into space. This whole thing makes one wonder why didn’t the Air Force didn’t take this action, since they own Musk’s security clearance?