R.I.P. José 'Pepe' Mujica, cannabis hero and 'poorest president in the world'
Former Uruguayan President José Mujica was the first (and still only) head of state to legalize cannabis, in 2013. He lived in a sober house and drove a...
Elon Musk thinks it's a 'great idea' (on X) to make drug testing mandatory for federal government officials. President Trump's chief lackey, however, has made no secret in the past that he himself sometimes uses drugs.
It was Joshua Steinman, a former NSC (National Security Council) official, who rang the cat on X the bell. He questioned whether the new administration was considering mandatory and immediate drug testing for the many millions of federal employees. Steinmann specifically addressed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), Elon Musk's playground in the Trump empire.
Joe Rogan's joint
'Great idea,' Musk responded, which did raise some eyebrows. Didn't the richest man in the world openly smoke a joint on Joe Rogan's podcast a few years ago? Didn't he declare that he himself sometimes uses ketamine? Didn't he think we should be "open to psychedelics"?
But that was all before Elon Musk managed to curry favor with Donald Trump. By the way, he had not inhaled the smoke from that joint, he said, the same lame excuse that President Bill Clinton raised in the 1990s.
Today, as (unelected) boss of the (extra-parliamentary) DOGE, Musk wants to fire as many civil servants as possible, saving billions in government spending. Drug use could be a compelling reason for dismissal.
Is Musk against legalization?
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Musk donated half a million dollars last year to a committee that opposed a planned referendum on the legalization of cannabis in Florida. In doing so, he also indirectly supported Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, then still in the running as a presidential candidate, a staunch opponent of all things cannabis.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren gave Elon Musk an alternative savings tip: stop making life difficult for cannabis companies and consumers. That's another way he could cut government spending quite a bit.
Irrelevant drug tests
To the letter of the law (a presidential decree by Ronald Reagan in 1986), by the way, no federal official may use Schedule 1 drugs, and that still includes cannabis until further notice. If that statute were to change, the definition of "illegal drugs" would also change, and drug testing might become irrelevant.
