Opiates are quite a different animal. A weekend of psychedelics with your friends is not going to help you ignore anything.

re: opiate of the masses

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the+opiate+of+the+masse...

In short, it's not to be read literally.

I'm aware, and in context with religion is an apt metaphor. But in context with psychedelics it's not.

They're not a numbing agents, they're catalysts for change, that's why they're applicable to therapy in ways that opiates are not.

Yes and no. At some low-level the brain doesn't differential between physical pain and mental / emotional pain. It's pain, and it needs to be reckoned with. Maybe psychedelics aren't painkillers in the opioid sense. However, they do provide pain relief, and yes perhaps an opportunity for healing.

The difference really isn't all that much.

I agree with the other commenter that this is not how psychedelics work. They do not "make the pain go away" like depressants. If they have any effect on solidarity it would be to strengthen it, not disrupt it.

This is interestingly a great example of the point being made in TFA. That we need a new category for psychedelics because they are not anything like opiates etc.