Because the term "pharmacy" was adopted by the medical profession in the 16-17th centuries, some carelessly assume that φαρμακος always referred to the use of drugs in the practice of medicine.
Just as there was no distinction in early times between astrology and astronomy, there was also no distinction between sorcery (or witchcraft), drug-trafficking and the practice of medicine. The only doctors were sorcerers and witch doctors, casting spells aided by drug-induced states. There were no scientifically pragmatic practitioners of medicine in the modern sense, distinct from religious "priests." When medicine emerged out from this vague, and usually occult, trade as a separate and pragmatic practice, φαρμακος was apparently never applied to them – until they themselves adopted the term, with no occult nor religious connotations, centuries later. It is, therefore, inaccurate to apply the Biblical usage of φαρμακος to the modern occult-free "pharmacology". Φαρμακος did refer specifically to the use of drugs, as illustrated by a quote from "The Origin of Medical Terms", Second Ed., by Henry Allen Skinner. While Skinner's conclusions sometimes betray a lack of familiarity with Greek grammar, the relationship between φαρμακος and drugs is, nevertheless, fixed. According to Skinner, the term φαρμακος "occurs nine times in the Iliad [c. 850 B.C.E. , ed. note] meaning remedy or unguent. In the Odyssey, it is used more broadly as a drug or a medicinal plant, either poisonous or non-poisonous, also as an antidote or charm. In an ancient Greek festival which included the casting out of a scapegoat, the scapegoat was called φαρμακος???" The reader who careless1y assumes that φαρμακος??being evil, refers to all usage of drugs, salves, ointments, medicines, etc. must then reconsider passages that, instead of “sorceries,” refer to the wider use of drugs and salves. Some modern schools have found that the clay in that area has qualities that can cure certain types of eye ailments having the symptoms described in that passage.
The test of whether a drug is evil hinges upon whether there is occult, by this we mean mind-altering, involvement, which was the usual case with ancient?φαρμακος. Quoting from "The Expository Dictionary of NT Words" by Vine, for the noun φαρμακεια:
"In sorcery, the use of drugs, whether simple or potent, was generally accompanied by incantations and appeals to occult powers, with the provision of various charms, amulets, etc., professedly designed to keep the applicant or patient from the attention and power of demons, but actually to impress the applicant with the mysterious resources and powers of the sorcerer." [emphasis added]
Overriding all of this however, as with all of the Greek terms, is the need to relate to the Greek term in the same manner as the first-century Jew would have understood the concept – the underlying Hebrew. Thus, in LXX, this term is related to the Hebrew ëéùåó (ki·shuph′ ; sorcery, spell-casting, bewitchery, witchcraft) and related forms, respectively—all of which were associated with drug-aided implementation and drug-induced states.
Thus, in this text, "drug-trafficking" is rendered for φαρμακεια, and "drug-traffickers" for φαρμακος ευς.
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