Bezos, Musk and Branson Get High in More Ways Than One

Bezos with McCormick in 2005

Ian Rassman of LA NORML has informed me that activist & author Todd McCormick revealed on his Instagram account that Jeff Bezos indicated he was a pot smoker when the two met in 2005 at an Amazon 10th Anniversary event featuring Norah Jones and Bill Maher. 

This would mean that the three billionaires who shot themselves into space of late—Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson—are all potheads. So much for marijuana smokers not achieving their highest goals. 

Amazon announced in June that it would cease drug-testing its employees for marijuana and would work towards pot legalization. A message to US Amazon employees from CEO Dave Clark that began, "In April, Jeff shared our vision to become Earth’s Best Employer and Earth’s Safest Place to Work," continued: 

"We will no longer include marijuana in our comprehensive drug screening program for any positions not regulated by the Department of Transportation, and will instead treat it the same as alcohol use. We will continue to do impairment checks on the job and will test for all drugs and alcohol after any incident."

"And because we know that this issue is bigger than Amazon, our public policy team will be actively supporting The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act)—federal legislation that would legalize marijuana at the federal level, expunge criminal records, and invest in impacted communities. We hope that other employers will join us, and that policymakers will act swiftly to pass this law." 

Jimmy Kimmel's joke about the Amazon announcement was that the urine test was the only bathroom break employees there got. Maybe the company can help us move to "impairment checks" that have actual correlation with worker impairment and workplace safety (unlike piss tests). 

 

As for our other two Spaced Cadets: Musk famously smoked a joint during an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast in 2018. He made a joke about it in May when he hosted Saturday Night Live, where he announced he has Asperger's Syndrome, which is interesting because some studies say cannabis can be an effective medicine for people on the autism spectrum. 

Branson with McCormick at the  Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum

Branson recounts trying pot and LSD in his book, Losing My Virginity. In 2001 he said that he would sell legalized cannabis in his Virgin stores, but not tobacco because it is too dangerous. When asked about cannabis on a BBC2 interview he said: "I personally think it should be legalized. I think it’s wrong that 100,000 young people have criminal records every year for doing something which is no worse than their parents are doing every night—drinking alcohol." 

The Brit who beat both Bezos and Musk into space has been more and more outspoken about drug legalization, acting as a commissioner of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and telling the press he asked President Obama for a joint when he visited the White House in 2012. He blogged in February 2021 about "Changing the Cannabis Conversation." Yeah, let's do that.