Techniques other than drug use exist which allow people to access these states, meditation, lucid dreaming, dance, trance, etc. But most of those require practice. Drugs, however, don’t really demand any preparation. You can essentially push a button and feel a certain way - until the buzz wears off.

This, in my opinion, is one of the few actually bad things about drugs. People come to associate these states with the drug, and not with themselves. Because they see it as something they can only achieve with the help of a drug, they may become less and less capable of developing that state on their own.

Even Terence McKenna came to the realization that drugs weren’t the only way to access these states. He says it at some point during his last interview with Erik Davis, and that it was his cancer and the associated treatments led him to realize this.