Elon Musk said that his prescribed use of ketamine alleviates periods of low mood and is in the best interest of investors in Tesla and the other companies he runs.

For Wall Street, “what matters is execution,” Musk said in an interview with former CNN anchor Don Lemon streamed on YouTube.

“Are you full value for investors? From an investor standpoint, if there is something I’m taking, I should keep taking it,” he said referring to Tesla’s success.

“Tesla is worth about as much of the rest of the car industry combined, from nothing. That’s pretty good.”

Musk said he takes the drug as prescribed to treat what he described as “chemical tides” that lead to depression-like symptoms. He said he took the drug roughly every two weeks and that he “can’t really get wasted”.

“If you use too much ketamine you can’t get work done, [and] I have a lot of work. I don’t have a situation where I can be not mentally acute,” he said.

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Doctors can prescribe ketamine to treat pain and depression and at higher doses, the drug acts as a sedative. It can also cause hallucinations, and overdosing can lead to unconsciousness and dangerously slowed breathing, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

An article in the Wall Street Journal in January said that executives in the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive officer’s companies had grown concerned about his recreational drug use. Musk responded that he hadn’t failed drug tests and, in a post on his X social network, that “whatever I’m doing, I should obviously keep doing it!”