Elon Musk smokes pot on live podcast

Tesla (TSLA)'s now former chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, quit the company after concluding CEO Elon Musk wasn't interested in accounting details around a potential take-private transaction, according to people familiar with the matter.

The billionaire CEO said in a blog post that the funding wasn't secured and that most shareholders wanted Tesla to remain public.

Tesla Inc's shares dropped the most in two years on Friday, rocked by the departure of its accounting chief after just a month and mounting investor concerns about Chief Executive Elon Musk's behavior after he smoked marijuana on a live webcast. He took one drag from what Rogan described as a joint containing tobacco mixed with marijuana, which is legal in California.

"Since I joined Tesla on August 6, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations", Morton said in the filing.

While on air with comedian Joe Rogan, Musk discussed various topics ranging from flamethrowers, social media, and the consequences of artificial intelligence. As noted, Musk once tweeted that he was considering selling shares of his company for $420.

I'm not a regular smoker of weed. "I don't actually notice any effect ... I don't find that it is very good for productivity".

Shares of electric auto maker Tesla Inc. fell more than 6 per cent early Friday after the CEO appeared to smoke marijuana during an interview and the company's accounting chief left after a month on the job. That tweet prompted controversy and an SEC investigation.

"I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla's leadership or its financial reporting", he said. "We think this is further evidence that the time is now for management and the Board to address these issues", Albertine said.

Tesla has told investors it expects to turn a profit in the second half of this year, a forecast the company's head of investor relations, Martin Viecha, reiterated at a conference earlier this week sponsored by RBC Capital Markets, RBC analyst Joseph Spak wrote in a note on Thursday. The report, which was published by electric car-themed news site InsideEVs, estimated that the Tesla Model 3, Model S, and Model X, were the Top 3 electric cars in the USA in August.