Obviously our resident experts on pretty much everything already excellently covered the "yeah, you should probably not do that if you want to do well" aspect. But they did not cover another aspect it sounded like you were asking in there, as to whether alcohol in general was inexorably linked to the graduate social life.
It is entirely possible that I will go my entire life without drinking (or smoking pot or really doing anything interesting like that), and I have never had difficulty having a good time hanging out with others in my cohort, or getting along with them in general. Now, I also will likely miss out on at least a few good chances to get wasted with my research advisor and make a permanent friendship bond, but the extra money and free time seem worth it. You can make just about anything work in graduate school, it seems. Even if you did drink every night, as long as you spent the whole afternoon researching and writing beforehand, you could likely still make it work. I just do not know that I have met anyone who has successfully balanced extreme drinking with extreme research.
Quarex got a reaction from Cheshire_Cat in Alcoholism and Grad School