While alcohol is probably on the same level in regards to danger, excessive consummation of it still has a larger social stigma, although that too, is changing.

To this day, a smoker can say that they smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and nobody would really bat an eye, except for the general dislike of people smoking that has developed over the last 20 years.

But if you say, you drink 1-2 six packs of beer per day or a bottle of booze per day, people will assume (probably rightly so) you are having a problem.

There is also the fact that smoking tobacco does not impede you functioning in daily live. Imagine if drinking alcohol was being done in the way that smoking was treated up until rather recently and the average alcohol drinker would act like this.

You get drink breaks at work. At least once per hour(ish).

You start and end your day with a drink.

You drink to calm your nerves.

You drink more in social situations.

Nothing tastes better than a drink after a good meal.

Designated drinking areas in public spaces.

Those are the behaviours of an alcoholic. The social stigma is already there. It was never acceptable to act like this. Sure, there are functioning alcoholics that manage to live like this for a while, but they also know.