It's like this in SE Asia as well. Socializing pretty much always implies drinking. It's a struggle for me because I've never really enjoyed drinking and I've found that as I get older it takes me longer to recover from it. Even a few drinks now and I have trouble sleeping well and I'm mentally fuzzy the next day. This is not conducive to writing code at all.
Hopefully one day Cannabis will mostly supplant alcohol as the social drug of choice.
Hopefully one day Cannabis will mostly supplant alcohol as the social drug of choice.