About

Adrenochrome Conspiracy Theories refer to various unsupported claims that wealthy elites harvest the chemical compound adrenochrome from young children to use as a psychedelic drug or as a cosmetic treatment to maintain a youthful appearance. The conspiracy theories are widely circulated within online communities overlapping with interest in both Pizzagate and QAnon.

Origin

In 1954, writer Aldous Huxley published an essay titled "The Doors of Perception," which speculated that adrenochrome could consumption could cause effects similar to being under the influence of the psychedelic drug mescaline.

In the 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, adrenochrome is mentioned as a potent psychedelic drug taken by the protagonist Raoul Duke. In the 1998 film adaptation, Raoul Duke (played by Johnny Depp) consumes several doses out of a vial of adrenochrome and begins to have terrifying hallucinations in a hotel room (shown below).

"There’s only one source for this stuff… the adrenaline glands from a living human body."

In the DVD commentary for the film, director Terry Gilliam stated that Hunter S. Thompson had confessed to inventing the drug adrenochrome for the book and that it did not actually exist as a psychedelic drug.

Spread

On January 24th, 2018, the /r/adrenochrome^[3] subreddit was created. On January 27th, 2018, the Chilling Tales for Dark Nights YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "The Truth About Adrenochrome" (shown below).

On August 6th, Instagram user @fiver_rabbit_home uploaded a clip of the Fear and Loathing scene (shown below).

On June 26th, 2020, a screenshot of a Facebook post accusing celebrities of using adrenochrome to appear young was published on the /r/insanepeoplefacebook^[4] subreddit.

On June 29th, 2020, YouTuber CheckMateNews uploaded a Turkish television news segment featuring an interview with Sandra Bullock on The Ellen Show, followed by a theory about celebrities injecting adrenochrome (shown below).

On June 30th, the @conscious_awareness Instagram feed uploaded an interview with a man claimed to be "ex CIA," who discusses human trafficking and adrenochrome, stating that "Pizzagate woke me up" (shown below).

That day, a screenshot from the report was shared on the /r/conspiracy^[2] subreddit, where it gathered more than 480 points (85% upvoted) and 200 comments within one week (shown below).

On April 7th, the news site Spinoff^[5] published an article titled "The truth about adrenochrome,"

On April 9th, Ebaumsworld^[1] published an article titled "The Adrenochrome Conspiracy Theories Explained." On July 3rd, the news site The Spinoff published an article

Search Interest

External References