On studying the world's religious books, we could come to conclusions that some of the tenants of different beliefs globally came from each other; when we use entheogens that lead to the knowledge they acquired, we realize there is just one Source to reality (God - EL), and there are multiple Divine Beings (Avatars - Elohim).
The Babylonian Jews have messed up the language where El & Elohim are not the same thing (Isaiah 46:9), this happened due to their rejection of Canaanite Polytheism, and because they no longer had direct connection to the Divine through entheogens.
I understand your sentiments of manmade drugs often being poisons to our system, which can lead us a way from 'direct connection' (Yoga), yet to go into denial of these ancient practises sort of misses the point of the Gospel.
Yeshua was sharing the Showbread/Essene Bread/Ezekiel's 4:9 Bread, when this is made with sprouted grains, then boiled to kill the ergot poisoning, and baked, it is psychedelic.
The Holy Anointing Oil should contain 'Kaneh-Bosem' (Exodus 30:23-25), which is where we get the etymology of 'Cannabis from.
When the Holy Anointing Oil is made properly, it has the power to heal many different ailments, where both the disciples (Mark 6:13), and the early church healed with it (James 5:14).
These practises were the same in the Dharmic culture of Bhang (cannabis & milk drink), and Soma (psychedelic mushrooms, many believe Fly Agaric).
The ancient Greeks used Cannabis, which is where they borrowed the Semitic word Kaneh-Bosem, and the Eleusinian Mysteries, was where the ancient Greek philosophers, and Roman Emperors would go and have Kykeon (barley ergot drink), until mankind fell into debauchery, and banned these ancient practises which lead to direct connection with the Divine.
Because some of these modern New Agers have no structure like within the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Dharma, the Hebrew systems of parable upon parable, the wisdom to see the divine becomes elusive.
When we've read the world's religions, we should know that the Bible is a purposeful Snare to catch out the Prytsim (Ravenous Predators), as the Creator is seeing who'd follow a God of death, rather than of the Living.
Saul is spelled the same as the word Sheol in Hebrew, where it basically identifies him as the Devil working for God to set up the Gentiles (Uneducated).
The fraudulent Gospel of John & Saul purposefully contradict everything Yeshua said, to prove that some only wanted the reward of eternal life (Maher-shalal-hash-baz - Quick to the Spoils & Hastens to the Prey), and didn't want to listen to Immanuel's/Messiah's Testimony (Isaiah 8).
Saul creates a Covenant of Death about the Chief Corner Stone (Isaiah 28:15+18), to see who would jump into the Bed of Adultery (Isaiah 28:9-19+20-21).
Yeshua was teaching the same as many of the Avatars globally, that we're down near Hell in a world of desires, where people love to worship their Self, and so we should reject Self to become altruistic, and by us all doing this we'll make this world a better place.
The Everlasting Gospel/Dharma wasn't that "we bring in the Kingdom", it's that Yeshua came to warn mankind has a time to rehabilitate, learn to live in harmony, and those who've worked towards being 'the Peacemakers, will be called Children of God', and get resurrected into the 'World to Come'.
Simon was called petros, as Yeshua knew he'd re-joined the Pharisees, where we have Midrash saying that Simon & Saul made up Christianity to deceive the Gentiles.
The clever bit is, since God knew that 'there are wicked men among our people, who would use the Messiah to Snare the Gentiles' (Jeremiah 5:26), God has Snared them to remove them for being deceptive (Isaiah 29:20-21, Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen).
I agree with you about addiction, and substances being misused, where it is something that is happening across society anyway; yet with a better educated spiritual society this would be less likely.
There was this fascinating book God put in my path called 'Trance Dance', which explained how in tribal living we had a system of society, where we'd reach the age of maturity, take entheogens with the tribal leaders, and be initiated into something sacred as a community... Now though at the age of initiation people get drunk, eat dead animals, and think that is living.
We've legalized medical cannabis, yet it is a gateway to spiritual connection, and without spiritual grounding many people can go any direction.
This same is taking place with many thinking Ayahuasca/DMT is a cure all for psychological issues, when it can open us up to all sorts of entities, and we need to be strong enough spiritually to deal with that.
This is where within ancient religious systems they created whole infrastructures to educate the psyche, where we can still see how advanced their understanding of psychology was within the Greek language's meanings.
We can show that many of the rituals that were performed within entheogen usage globally, were like modern micro-dosing - where it was used specifically to heighten the senses, not to dull them or "get off our heads".
We're living in a Babylonian society of debauchery, where the less violent religions have been wiped out by the predatorish ones; now though through the internet allowing education globally, there is a potential that healthy living could be shown to be a far better religion.