Religion and Opium

The medical value of an opiate is as a suppressant of pain, while its dangers include addiction, and a distraction from removing the cause of a pain.  Likewise, Hope can offer a temporary respite from psychic distress, but, as a continuous condition, it can be malign.  So, Marx's famous phrase, the actual wording of which, in the Introduction to his projected Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, is "Religion is the opium of the people", involves a two-fold over-generalization, i. e. of Religion and of opium.  For example, Religion qua healing via prayer can concretely alleviate despair by offering, after all else has failed, the hope of a one-time success, but its value is more dubious as a regular preemption of established surgical methods.