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The wealthy have always been scandalised by drug use; that’s no surprise. However, Silicon Valley executives are now taking an approach that’s raising questions about corporate responsibility as they turn to magic mushrooms, LSD, ketamine and other drugs in hopes of producing business breakthroughs and at least in the case of Elon Musk, to cure depression.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Tesla-Twitter-SpaceX CEO takes ketamine to cure his depression, with the report further stating that he also uses “psychedelic-like substances at parties”, even citing witnesses. Musk reportedly microdoses ketamine to improve productivity, creativity, and the occasional full dose at parties.
Musk has been rather open about his ketamine use, tweeting that “ketamine taken occasionally is a better option” when tackling depression on Tuesday. That said, it’s important to note that there haven’t been any publicly confirmed reports regarding Musk’s depression diagnosis.
Regardless, it’s safe to say Musk has long supported ketamine over SSRIs or other traditional medications that may ‘zombify’ people. He also got into hot water for smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan podcast back in 2018. Back then, marijuana was legal in California but federally illegal, raising big question marks on SpaceX’s deals with NASA.
Musk isn’t the only Silicon Valley executive to turn to psychedelics either. Sergey Brin has also been known to chug magic mushrooms from time to time as part of the same movement. Apple legend Steve Jobs was rather open about his LSD use as well, although Justin Zhu, co-founder of marketing start-up Iterable, wasn’t given the same luxury, being fired from his CEO post in 2021 for micro dosing in the office.
The idea that micro dosing such substances can enhance productivity and creativity or provide breakthroughs at work has accelerated their use, not to mention that they seem to have permeated the corporate culture. In the end, it all comes back down to executives to deal with the consequences of handling a workforce frequently using drugs, most if not all of which are illegal.
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