Life is uncomfortable - even painful.  Life is full of mistakes, and unexpected problems, and painful mood swings, and bodily pains, and scary circumstnaces.

But maturation should include a person developing more and more inner strength and resiliency to deal with such discomfort, and pleasure should be based on real accomplishments and sense experiences originating in reality. Thus the person develops an ocean of wisdom based on experience of a lifetime dealing with the pains and pleasures of reality - realistic perspectives and coping techniques.

Drugs give an artificial high with no basis in reality and thus undercut the brain/mind/body/reality connection that has evolved over millions of years. the result is an increasing inability to deal with reality.

As more drugs are used, it becomes more and more difficult to deal with the discomfort of reality - the person becomes more and more sensitive to every little discomfort - thus the person becomes more and more dependent on drugs to maintain a reasonable level of comfort in life free of pain.

But other cultures use drugs --- mostly other cultures use drugs ritualistically only to induce an altered state to blow the mind open - not to cope with day-to-day tensions.  This means their use is sparing and is highly regulated - meaning scheduled  mostly  irrespective of moods and life-circumstances - thus coping with day-to-day mood swings and circumstances does not have a chance to become dependent on the altered state created by the drugs.  The difference is that modern culture uses drugs recreationally - that means casually and randomly - the rresult inevitably thus becomes to relieve general or extreme tension when it arises.  Thus the person does not have a chance to learn to cope with these kinds of tensions with techniques that are inherent in his/her mind and body.  Thus the natural growth of the mind and body are undercut.