It's really hard to drink yourself to death when you're Rekieta's age. That's why alcohol is legal and opioids aren't. Opioids have a really high mortality rate on a year by year basis. So large numbers of heroin addicts die from overdose or other drug related consequences every year.
With alcohol, you can drink yourself into oblivion, night after night, year after year with little to nothing in terms of physical consequences for twenty, thirty, forty years. Whole cultures are built on drinking that way. Koreans, large parts of the UK, the Irish, etc. all drink like Rekieta well into their late 60's before significant consequences begin to appear.
I have a friend. He polishes off at least two bottles of wine a night. Every night. Some nights, his wife will go to bed and he'll hit the spirits and polish off half a bottle of whiskey on top. He's drunk like this for as long as I've known him (since the late 80's.)
The only negative consequences he's ever faced (and he's now in his late 60's) was when he got up rat-arsed to go for a piss, fell down the stairs and cracked a few ribs a few years ago.
His wife and kids loathe and detest him though. Drink makes him obnoxious and they feel as though it's stolen a large chunk of their lives while he barely notices their misery.