it is possible that there were widespread uses of psychedelics in multiple earlier civilizations, but those social systems either did not last themselves or were defeated in wars and erased. Some of the vigorous rhetoric about "pagans" in the middle ages Europe for example.. psychoactive substances are not new
The primary thing that happened is the rise and power of the catholic church, which saw the "direct" spiritual experience offered by psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelic plants as a threat to their gatekeeping role and violently stamped out knowledge and use of such substances.
Similarly, the moral panic about psychedelics was because it threatened vested business and corporate interests (and the economic war with communism), especially when slogans such as "Turn on, tune in, drop out" because associated with them.
Alternatively, see John Allegro's (one of the people who worked on deciphering the Dead Sea scrolls) The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross which posits that Jesus actually was a mushroom.
My point was more to say that mainstream Christianity has an established view on drugs. I'm far from an export on Allegro's work, however I'm pretty sure it is rejected by most Christians.
If he is correct then you could argue that drugs have not been seen as witchcraft since the beginning of Christianity. But I wasn't really trying to argue historical fact, simply that it's a long held mainstream belief within Christianity.
well.. so lets be broader here.. I listened to "Guns, Germs and Steel" on audiotape and that book gives great examples of innate advantages to the peoples in Europe, about grains and farm animals and a few other things.. that were multiplied over time for advantage.. However, they do not talk about the particular collection of psychoactive substances in that part of the world -- they occur all over the globe. But some of the drugs used in Europe were pretty awful actually. I imagine that taken badly, some fairly awful results could happen over time.. see the Baba-yaga group of stories, or just plain old bad health outcomes..
So yes it is easy to fault the Church of Rome and others like it, but also there is benefit in gentler means of enlightenment.. is that not the higher evolutionary goal? Having more powerful black-metal shows or whatever, is not fertile and not productive over time.. Whereas the focus of the Church of Rome now is the family, stability and arguably forming the social strength to make strong military. There are other groups to pick on that way, not exclusive to the Church of Rome.
I go out of my way to explain this because I also have Catholic-or-not conflicts in my own family tree.. so it is a real issue, for sure. I will also add that schizophrenia is a real and serious condition, and could be ignorantly connected to some strong drugs. Sadly, marijuana is now linked to schizophrenia in a small percentage of the population that is prone to that.. So .. more research needed.
European indigenous psychoactives were primarily deliriant nightshades and amanita muscaria mushrooms - both of which are very interesting to read about but I've never felt compelled to try.
Taking nightshades and "speaking with the devil" seems entirely plausible to what people of that cultural mindset would have experienced. Erowid's Datura experience vault has a collection of first hand accounts of the experience, and they sound quite terrifying: being in a dream-like state for days at a time with heavy amnesia, hallucinations of people who aren't really there, dark ominous imagery and out of body experiences. Much more realistic hallucinations than are reported from psilocybes. See also "flying ointment" for some interesting (nsfw) context to 'witches riding brooms".
Everything I've read about the amanita muscaria experience makes me never want to experience it... thankfully we have a fair set of varied experiences with other mushroom varieties and many synthetic tryptamines with more pleasant experience and risk profiles.
