One thing is true, pharmakeia attract different spirits. I never tried opium - I am allergic to it - but I read opium writers compulsively. Opium contributed to the sudden decline of the Turkish Empire which owned the Eastern half of Europe for a while. That, and the new custom of inherited lands finished the Empire off.
My favorite was mari-J for a while, but serious psychedelics attracted me. They were taking me to a different dimension vertically. Mushroom spirits came back even years after taking them, in dreams.
Caffeine is a daily for me, but when I overdo it I tend to have negative views on everything.
These days my favorite is simply OBE which I achieve by reciting complicated Shaivite mantras then sleeping awake... Nothing can compare to those healing energy flashes, and there are meaningful visions as well as anything you might want to discover... I honestly think dreaming is one of the most important tasks of mankind. And few have the gift to explore it.
MJ in my opinion just clouds senses in the long run, and destroys short-term memory, but it is most useful for young people who are cut away from their bodies and sensing the Earth.
Cocaine is frightful. I tried it a few times in my youth and I had the notion that it brought out the worst in people - a Satanic sort of self-satisfaction, a sense that you are better than the average, with an urgency to rule others or to show off.
One of the most interesting materials I ever tried was Salvia Divinorum. Totally different from the others... sane and attuned to the Earth as well as mundane things. No odd visions, but your thoughts are like answered every time by familiar voices... in a chorus...
Peyote turned me into a modern art lover. I saw thousands of imaginative abstract paintings in one single session.