Certain forms of alcohol (wine & beer & formerly mead) consumption run deep in European (at least) culture. Like, almost 10,000 years deep. They're part of a bundle of cuisine and agricultural traditions. It is possible for most people to consume them responsibly and in moderation. Obviously there are outliers, and distilled and budget alcohol is trickier. But there is an avenue for "respectable" use of the commodity.
Cigarettes by contrast are an industrial product explicitly made to be addictive. I'd guess? at least half of people who start to consume them become addicted and it becomes habitual. (Though I should say I and others I know who 'smoked' recreationally @ college age at clubs etc never did become addicted, or quit fairly easily)
Tobacco itself also has deep cultural roots; ritually among indigenous North Americans, and also among post-colonial Europeans&North Americans in pipe tobacco and cigars. But that's not the same thing at all as cigarettes. I smoke a pipe now and then during the summer, and it rarely if ever leads to cravings.