Steve Jobs’ Pentagon File: Blackmail Fears, Youthful Arrest and LSD Cubes

Wired magazine

Steve Jobs' file

It’s been previously reported that Jobs took LSD, marijuana and hashish in his early years, but he expanded on this a bit to the Pentagon. In his signed statement for the security clearance, Jobs said:

“I used LSD from approximately 1972 to 1974. Throughout that period of time I used the LSD approximately ten to fifteen times. I would ingest the LSD on a sugar cube or in a hard form of gelatin. I would usually take the LSD when I was by myself. I have no words to explain the effect the LSD had on me, although, I can say it was a positive life changing experience for me and I am glad I went through that experience.”

There’s a handwritten addition on the form that has Jobs’ initials next to it, which reads “This was the reason I used LSD.”

He said that he had smoked marijuana with friends or eaten it cooked in brownies, but that the last time he had used the drug was in 1977.

“The best way I would describe the effect of the marijuana and the hashish is that it would make me relaxed and creative,” he told investigators.

On a form asking him to describe his use of alcohol, Jobs, or one of the investigators, wrote “NA.”

Jobs’ mercurial temperament has long been part of his lore, and he’s never tried to deny that he has anger issues. But in the statements he gave the DoD in 1988, although he admitted that he had lost his temper in the past “when things are not going right,” he said he had put this bad behavior behind him. He attributed his angry outbursts to perfectionism, and said he now had his emotions under control.

Jobs told the investigators he considered himself an emotionally and mentally stable person, but admitted to previous bouts of depression. Though he had never received medical treatment or counseling for any mental disorder, he said he had once attended a two-month course at the Oregon Feeling Center.

“This course primarily delt [sic] with getting in touch with your feelings and understanding your feelings,” he said. A sentence in the written statement says the course was titled “Primal Scream,” but this was later crossed out in the document. Jobs’ initials appear next to the crossed-out text.

According to one unidentified woman interviewed for the clearance, Jobs was inclined toward “spiritual sole-searching” [sic] through meditation that he did at home.