perhaps democracy gives the people an (outsized) illusion of control, but i'd disagree that democracy itself is the opiate. democracy is more open to a diversity of rhetoric, which can facilitate ideologically-driven diversions used by the powerful to corral the powerless.
In the end the powerful remain powerful, and the weak remain weak. IMO much of democracy is a smokescreen. With apologies to Marx, the opiate of the masses is democracy.