Elon Musk's Ketamine Use
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About
Elon Musk's Ketamine Use refers to a series of jokes and memes that reference the use of the drug ketamine by American entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk, to which he admitted in a March 2024 interview with journalist Don Lemon. The jokes often explain episodes of Musk's erratic behavior online and in public with him experiencing the effects of the drug and an alleged addiction to ketamine.
Origin
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that, in small doses, is used for treating pain and treatment-resistant depression. Due to its hallucinogenic and dissociative effects, ketamine achieved certain popularity as a recreational drug, especially during the 2010s and 2020s.
Before 2024, Elon Musk posted about ketamine and its use for treating depression on X[1][2][3] / Twitter several times, with his earliest discovered post mentioning the drug being an Elizabeth or Bernie? meme posted on November 15th, 2021 (shown below).
In December 2023, following Elon Musk's New York Times DealBook Interview, suspicions that Musk's erratic behavior during the event was caused by the influence of drugs such as ketamine were circulated on social media (example post[4] shown below). The rumor was investigated further in traditional media[5] in January 2024.
On March 18th, 2024, Musk's interview with broadcast journalist Don Lemon premiered on X[6] and YouTube,[7] garnering over 3.1 million views on the latter platform (shown below; 17:54 mark).
During the interview, Elon Musk admitted to using small amounts of ketamine "once every other week," explaining that it was prescribed by a doctor to treat depressive state episodes. In the interview, Musk insisted that he rarely took the drug as otherwise it would interfere with his work and that he is "almost always" sober while using social media.
On March 19th, 2024, Musk commented on his confession on X,[8] writing that the reason behind his admission was that he thought it might help people struggling with bouts of depression.
Spread
After Elon Musk entered then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's inner circle during the fall of 2024 and started playing a prominent part in his election campaign, memes critical of him and his involvement in politics saw a surge on social media.
Starting in early November 2024, memes that described Musk as a ketamine addict, including clips of Musk in which his tics were being explained with drug use, saw viral spread online.
For example, on November 4th, 2024, rapper Azealia Banks, who feuded with Musk and his ex-wife Grimes in the past, wrote that Musk was "a fucking overrated Ketamine addict."
On that day, the X[9] news account @PopBase shared Banks' quote in a post that gained over 16,000 reposts and 212,000 likes in five months.
On January 20th, 2025, X[10] user @P_Kallioniemi shared a clip of Musk spinning his head at the 2024 Inauguration of Donald Trump, captioning the video, "When ketamine finally kicks in." The post (shown below) received over 8,200 reposts and 82,000 likes in two months.
When ketamine finally kicks in pic.twitter.com/DNl1RgnShQ
— Pekka Kallioniemi (@P_Kallioniemi) January 20, 2025
Elon Musk's alleged addiction to ketamine remained a prevalent subject in online discussions pertaining to the entrepreneur throughout early 2025.
Notably, on March 5th, 2025, member of the French Senate Claude Malhuret called Musk "un bouffon sous ketamine" (fr. "a jester on ketamine"), with the phrase seeing some use in memes in the following weeks.
Various Examples
When the ketamine hits pic.twitter.com/Taxh2St4Bn
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) March 22, 2025
