Editing Adrenochrome (section)

== In popular culture ==
* In his 1954 book ''[[The Doors of Perception]]'', [[Aldous Huxley]] mentioned the discovery and the alleged effects of adrenochrome, which he likened to the symptoms of [[mescaline]] intoxication, although he had never consumed it.<ref name=adams />
* [[Anthony Burgess]] mentions adrenochrome as "drencrom" at the beginning of his 1962 novel ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]''. The protagonist and his friends are drinking drug-laced milk: "They had no license for selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the new veshches which they used to put into the old moloko, so you could peet it with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches [...]"<ref name=adams />
* [[Hunter S. Thompson]] mentioned adrenochrome in his 1971 book ''[[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas]]''.<ref name="friedberg">{{cite magazine | last=Friedberg | first=Brian | title=The Dark Virality of a Hollywood Blood-Harvesting Conspiracy | magazine=Wired | url=https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-dark-virality-of-a-hollywood-blood-harvesting-conspiracy/ | access-date=21 February 2021}}</ref> This is the likely origin of current myths surrounding this compound, because a character states that "There's only one source for this stuff{{nbsp}}... the adrenaline glands from a living human body. It's no good if you get it out of a corpse." The adrenochrome scene also appears in the novel's [[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (film)|film adaptation]].<ref name=adams>{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Josie |title=The truth about adrenochrome |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/07-04-2020/explainer-adrenochrome-the-drug-that-doesnt-exist/ |access-date=28 June 2020 |work=The Spinoff |date=7 April 2020}}</ref> In the DVD commentary, director [[Terry Gilliam]] admits that his and Thompson's portrayal is a fictional exaggeration. Gilliam insists that the [[Psychoactive drug|drug]] is entirely fictional and seems unaware of the existence of a substance with the same name.  Hunter S. Thompson also mentions adrenochrome in his book ''[[Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72]]''. In the footnotes in chapter April, page 140, he says: "It was sometime after midnight in a ratty hotel room and my memory of the conversation is hazy, due to massive ingestion of booze, [[fatback]], and forty [[Cubic centimetre|cc]]'s of adrenochrome."
* In the first episode of the ITV series ''[[Lewis (TV series)|Lewis]]'', "Whom the Gods Would Destroy", the motive for the crimes was that a prostitute had been killed years previously to harvest her adrenal glands.
* Adrenochrome is mentioned in the 2014 [[Warhammer 40,000]] novel [[List of Warhammer 40,000 novels#Chaos Space Marines|''The Talon of Horus'']] by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. It is described as a clear liquid beverage that is, "harvested from the adrenal glands of living slaves [...]"
* Adrenochrome is the subject of several [[conspiracy theories]], including [[QAnon]] and [[Pizzagate conspiracy theory|Pizzagate]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Fear and adrenochrome|url=https://spectator.us/fear-adrenochrome-conspiracy-theory-drug/|date=4 May 2020|website=Spectator USA|language=en-US|access-date=23 May 2020|archive-date=20 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920020254/https://spectator.us/fear-adrenochrome-conspiracy-theory-drug/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=How Facebook connects 'pizzagate' conspiracy theorists|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/fire-pizzagate-shop-reignites-conspiracy-theorists-who-find-home-facebook-n965956|website=NBC News|date=February 2019 |language=en|access-date=23 May 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Skeptoid | id=4750 | number=750 | title=How to Extract Adrenochrome from Children | date=20 October 2020 | access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> in which the chemical plays a similar role to earlier [[blood libel]] and [[Satanic ritual abuse]] stories.<ref name="kantrowitz1">{{cite magazine |last1=Kantrowitz |first1=Lia |title=QAnon, Blood Libel, and the Satanic Panic |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/159529/qanon-blood-libel-satanic-panic |magazine=The New Republic |access-date=8 May 2021 |date=29 September 2020}}</ref> The theories commonly state that a cabal of [[Satanism|Satanists]] rape and murder children, and harvest adrenochrome from their victims' blood as a drug<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Friedberg |first1=Brian  |title=The Dark Virality of a Hollywood Blood-Harvesting Conspiracy |url=https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-dark-virality-of-a-hollywood-blood-harvesting-conspiracy/ |access-date=February 16, 2022|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|date=July 31, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Hitt|first1=Tarpley|title=How QAnon Became Obsessed With 'Adrenochrome,' an Imaginary Drug Hollywood Is 'Harvesting' from Kids |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-qanon-became-obsessed-with-adrenochrome-an-imaginary-drug-hollywood-is-harvesting-from-kids |newspaper=The Daily Beast |access-date=27 January 2021 |date=August 14, 2020}}</ref> or as an [[Elixir of life|elixir of youth]].<ref>{{cite news |date=  January 21, 2021|title=QAnon: A Glossary |work=[[Anti-Defamation League]]|url=https://www.adl.org/blog/qanon-a-glossary|access-date=February 15, 2022}}</ref> In reality, adrenochrome has been produced by [[organic synthesis]] since at least 1952,<ref name="schayer" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US3445478A/en|title=Method of synthesizing adrenochrome monoaminoguanidine|publisher=[[Google Patents]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=1965|access-date=October 25, 2022|archivedate=October 16, 2021|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016150832/https://patents.google.com/patent/US3445478A/en}}</ref> is synthesized by [[biotechnology]] companies for research purposes, and has no medical or recreational uses.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/adrenochrome.htm|title=Untangling the Medical Misinformation Around Adrenochrome|author=Walker-Journey, Jennifer|publisher=[[HowStuffWorks]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=April 14, 2021|access-date=October 25, 2022|archivedate=April 14, 2021|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414211128/https://science.howstuffworks.com/adrenochrome.htm}}</ref>