Is opioid abuse as powerful a gateway drug for spirit attachment as alcohol and marijuana?

Very much so. This has a profound effect on the aura. After all, if you think about the mind and its various layers, the idea of holding one's space in part presumes an awareness, on some level, of danger and risk to the self and its integrity that could potentially arise at a moment’s notice. There are all manner of external forces that could impinge on a person, both of the human and nonhuman variety, and also involving nature and the variety of animals and even insect life that can be a threat and appear suddenly in a person’s perspective. The effect of narcotics, in particular, because they numb the negativity within an individual by substituting a pleasurable feeling and achieving a kind of nirvana-like state, do so by blocking the defense mechanisms of the mind which also give rise to and express anxiety and fear. That tension, that existential anxiety, does serve a purpose. When expressed to excess levels, it is a detriment but there can be benefit when out and about to have one's guard up, so to speak. This will not happen when one is high on opiates, so in effect, the shields are down, so to speak, and the person is wide open to predators who can enter their energy and then remain.