That's missing the point of the analogy, though; when Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, he wasn't referring the the addictive or negative heal

That's missing the point of the analogy, though; when Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, he wasn't referring the the addictive or negative health effects of opium. I'm not sure whether the point the article is making holds up to what Marx was getting at, but he wasn't saying that religion is literally an addictive drug; he was referring to the ability of opium to be used as a retreat from the stresses of life under capitalism. The full quote[0] is clearer: >[Religion] is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. >Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. [0] Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Karl Marx, 1843.