What started as a moment on the Joe Rogan Podcast has turned into one of the most popular memes today. But at what cost? A year of random drug testing.

The SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk sat down with the Nelk Boys on their Full Send Podcast.

When Kyle Forgeard reminded Musk about that time he smoked weed on the Joe Rogan podcast, he replied with a full rundown on the “backlash” he received.

“I did get a lot of backlash cause it’s like still federally illegal,” Musk giggled with a guilty grin.

What he describes as “nutty” is the entire year of drug testing he had to undergo because of the few puffs he took from Joe Rogan’s blunt. Not only that, but all SpaceX employees had to undergo the same testing.

Musk explained that SpaceX runs under federal government contracts. This means that a company tied to the federal government must comply with all laws at a federal level.

Because cannabis is still listed as a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance, any company with federal contracts suspected of drug use must undergo random or daily drug testing per federal laws.

What’s interesting is how Joe Rogan’s podcast was recorded in California, where cannabis is legal on recreational and medicinal levels.

“I had to have like random drug tests and stuff after that, to prove that I’m not like a drug addict,” Musk said. “They drug tested me for everything, and randomly. It wasn’t like ‘pick a day.’ I had like a whole year of random drug tests.”

Musk added that SpaceX competitors were calling him out, saying, “Hey, look at him brazenly smoking weed on Joe Rogan’s podcast.”

But, it wasn’t just the SpaceX founder who was drug tested, but the entire company. The company had around 6,000 employees at the time.

As the podcast continued, gears shifted into conversations around WNBA star and Olympic gold-medalist Brittney Griner and her recent sentencing to 9 years in Russian prison.

This isn’t the first time Musk has been against imprisoning people for weed, especially nonviolent cannabis crimes. This time around, he explained how our fight to free Griner isn’t lining up with the current rate of cannabis prisoners in the United States.

“If there are people in jail in America for the same stuff, shouldn’t we free them too?” He asked. Musk later shared his opinion that “people should not be in jail for nonviolent drug crimes.”

We completely agree.