Reefer Madness

The CEO behind Jim Beam and Maker's Mark resigns over CBD use

This Week In Blunders – Aug. 31-Sept. 6

“I’m not a regular smoker of weed. I don’t find that it is very good for productivity.” – Elon Musk.

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When Elon Musk famously smoked a doobie on The Joe Rogan Experience in 2018, Tesla stock took a dip as investors reacted to his reckless judgement.

NASA ordered a safety review of SpaceX. And the media speculated about what the U.S. Air Force might do since it prohibits cannabis use for all contractors. It turns out smoking weed on camera with a media provocateur is a stupid thing for any CEO to do.

But Musk not only kept his job, he’s now about to be handed a trillion-dollar pay package, or so Tesla’s board proposed on Friday. (That’s not a typo. It’s TRILLION with a T.)

This is not how it works in Japan where the corporate culture does not venerate rule-breaking dumbassery.

On Monday, Takeshi Niinami, the CEO and chairman of Suntory Holdings, resigned as Japanese police investigate his purchase of a supplement suspected to contain marijuana’s most magical ingredient, THC.

Niinami said he believed he was buying a product containing CBD, another cannabis compound that is legal in Japan and commonly used to treat everything from pain and anxiety to sleeplessness.

So far, authorities have provided zero proof of this alleged crime, even after raiding his residence, and Niinami insists he’s innocent. But Japan does not tolerate idiocy in the C-Suite, like we do here in the U.S. If you don’t know the difference between CBD and THC you are simply not fit to be CEO at a Japanese conglomerate.

“Maybe I can go work for SpaceX.” (Comic: ChatGPT)