Wikipedia – origin of word “drug”
From Middle English drogge (“medicine”), from Middle French drogue (“cure, pharmaceutical product”), from Old French drogue, drocque (“tincture, pharmaceutical product”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German droge, as in droge vate (“dry vats, dry barrels”), mistaking droge for the contents, which were wontedly dried herbs, plants or wares. Droge comes from Middle Dutch drōghe (“dry”), from Old Dutch drōgi (“dry”), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (“dry, hard”). Cognate with English dry, Dutch droog (“dry”), German trocken (“dry”).
Emphasis mine.
Do you know the history of the word “drug”? It’s etymology shows how the world has turned upside down. The word actually comes from an old German word for “dried,”because for thousands of years, folklore said that medicine came from plants, and therefore they used plants and essential oils for all their health needs.
“And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”
Ekekiel 47:12
But, you can’t patent plants, only something man-made. In today’s world only a synthetic or isolated compound produced in a laboratory is allowed to be called a drug. The FDA says that only drugs can cure disease. Period. What a strange world we have and how far we have come from ancient knowledge!