Reflecting back on the "Adrenochrome Hypothesis" in an article published in 1990 in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, the researchers said, "All we did know [about adrenochrome] was that it was readily formed by oxidation of adrenalin [sic] to a red compound in solution ... But we did suspected [sic] it might be a hallucinogen because ... it resembled a few known hallucinogens like ... LSD and ibogaine."
Adrenochrome's psychedelic properties, however, never actually panned out. And, as intriguing as those studies were, "they have been largely discredited due to, primarily, methodological failures. And I think they were unable to ever replicate any of the initial findings that were popularized," Marino says.
But, before the research on adrenochrome was thoroughly debunked, the drug was lumped into the same category — at least in the layman's eyes — as LSD and other psychedelic therapies, which set it up for celebrity status in popular culture.
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