The Trump White House is typically game to spin any narrative lobbed its way, but reports about Elon Musk’s rampant drug use appear to be another story.

Following The New York Times’ shocking report that Musk, while acting as a senior adviser to Donald Trump, was regularly consuming large amounts of drugs, reporter Megan Twohey appeared on MSNBC to discuss the story. In the process, she revealed that the White House had refused to answer questions put to them about whether or not they had administered drug tests to Musk during his tenure.

Musk’s SpaceX similarly did not respond to questions from the Times, specifically about whether the company gave Musk advance notice of the “random” drug tests it administers to its employees, something it reportedly began doing after he infamously smoked weed during his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. SpaceX, as a large government contractor, is required to maintain a drug-free workforce.

  • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Wait, is that what “drug-free workplace” means, that not a single employee does drugs in their off time? That’s wild. I assumed it was a sign companies posted as a CYA in case they wanted to fire anyone for bringing drugs on premises.

    • ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
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      4 days ago

      What it means in corporate America and what it means at a company that works with government contracts is two different things. The federal government mandates strict drug testing at companies they give contracts to. Most companies dont voluntarily choose to be that restrictive with testing

      • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        Notably, the feds have a really hard time keeping good computer people around. It’s hard to run NSA when all of the best programmers and IT people smoke in their off time.

        • utopiah@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          all of the best programmers and IT people smoke in their off time.

          Bit much… probably a lot of the best but definitely not all.

          Anyway, yes, sorry for being finicky, but also that those same people can probably find another workplace which do not care about that AND pays more.

    • auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      Anywhere that does random checks, which is a large part of the US workforce, will pick up people doing drugs on their off time.

        • auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 days ago

          Probably cause management all takes drugs and they’re doing it for insurance purposes, not government contract obligations.

          • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            Oh yeah, it would be actively bad business practice to drug test at restaurants. I just figured it was like the “employees must wash hands before returning to work” signs, where hanging the sign is the extent of the business’s obligation. I didn’t realize drug-free workplaces implied no off-premises drug usage from any employees.

        • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Those signs are also there to allow companies to test if they hit a problem employee not keeping their shit under control.