Wolves of Wall Street are ditching cocaine for ADHD drugs and nicotine patches to 'have an edge' through long hours
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Junior Wall Street bankers are ditching cocaine for focus-boosting ADHD prescription drugs and nicotine patches in an effort to 'have an edge' through the long hours, insiders say. Jonah Frey, a former investment banker for Wells Fargo, told the Wall Street Journal that Adderall and Vyvanse are becoming increasingly common in finance to help ambitious newcomers push through 90-hour weeks.
![[Today's Wall Street interns say they are increasingly turning to prescription drugs (File)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/10/93188841-14196905-image-a-3_1734343331872.jpg)
He alleged that one colleague would 'sometimes snort lines of crushed up Adderall pills from his desk in the bullpen', a common area for junior bankers, and 'nobody blinked an eye'. Frey said that he also received a prescription for Adderall, an amphetamine used to treat narcolepsy and ADHD, or illicitly as a performance enhancer, from an online healthcare company to help cope with the long hours.
![[Jonah Frey said staff at Wells Fargo could get in at 4am and work until around 2am the next day]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/10/93188849-14196905-image-a-4_1734343360187.jpg)
He told the outlet that it was not unusual for work days at the San Francisco office to start at 4am to link up with clients on the East Coast, ending around 2am the next day. 'I felt that I had to have an edge to make it,' he said, adding that he had gone in believing the seven-figure salary outweighed the 'downside risks'.
![[Last year, 29-year-old Michael Bloom, who worked at the Royal Bank of Canada in New York, died from the combined effects of fentanyl and ethanol. A superior had raised concerns about the Adderall he was taking to get through the day]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/10/93189517-14196905-image-a-20_1734345253742.jpg)
Frey ultimately resigned in 2022 and dropped his drug habit, but said it took a month to get over the withdrawals, suffering cold sweats and insomnia as he relearned 'the basics of how to operate as a human being' and went back to business school. The 2013 film Wolf of Wall Street depicted the excesses of working as a top stockbroker.
![[Adderall prescriptions have steadily increased over the last 12 years. The figures include prescriptions for both Adderall, brand and generic, in the U.S.]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/10/66136601-14196905-Adderall_prescriptions_have_steadily_increased_over_the_last_12_-a-21_1734345426926.jpg)
