Well, it's not just in our industry. Alcohol is basically not treated as a drug by society. But its abuse have consecuences as bad as any other "hard" drug.

"Clad in nothing but underwear, he was suffering from uncontrollable hiccups and burdened by a horribly swollen stomach." While some internal organs were destroyed and he was slowly dying. Terrible.

That said, if not alcohol he would have found something else. The problem was not the drug itself.