If we look at alcohol in isolation, for example per capita deaths are like 25 ish for both US and EU.
US drug OD is higher, like 30 per 100k. EU drug OD rate is like 18 per 100k. But it's not order of magnitude different.
I'll grant I don't know much about EU drug regulations, but the alcohol regulations are way less strict than the US on average.
For example my alcoholic beverage of choice isn't even legally considered alcohol in most of the EU (0.5%-1% is regulated like alcohol in the US)
