Irishgit is right - the key is not to do stupid things when drunk.
I worked for 10 years or so in Germany, where alcohol consumption is very much in the mainstream. Beer is taxed as a foodstuff, and is sold cheaper by volume than water in most restaurants (and in the office vending machines).
There, the regulations I have seen around alcohol were modest in comparison to the US, and included: no crates of beer at office birthday parties (only sparkling wine allowed), 2 beer maximum at the office cafeteria during lunch hour.
However, as a culture, they are probably less tolerant of people getting bawdily drunk at office parties than in the US - it is viewed as immature and unprofessional: the sort of behaviour that you get out of your system at 16 or so, and ironically it is often a mistake that visiting US middle management make when they attend company functions when visiting.
