English works pretty much the same way (except for that quirk with “drug store”), when people talk about “drugs” they almost never mean alcohol etc… Even though alcohol is worse than many illegal drugs, main point in favor of alcohol being that it’s legal and thus you know pretty well what you get - no poisonous diluents/extenders, no guessing at how much of the stuff you buy is actually the drug you want instead of diluent/extender, no contamination with other drugs.