As long as your current economic/geopolitical situation is favorable, sure.

Up to a third of the population of some of the east European countries are alcoholics.

I'm not saying bans are the solution, but ignoring problems just because you aren't affected isn't a great idea either.

The question to ask is, why is the rest of us not addicted? Most of us drank at some point, and we aren’t. What’s the difference between people who get addicted, and those that dont

I guess a short answer could be 'circumstances'.

The important bit seems to be whether something is physiologically capable of getting humans addicted.

Of course banning isn't a credible solution, but recognizing the problem is important by itself too.

Any sources for the 1/3rd claim?

Not 1/3 but 1/5 of Hungarians have a drinking problem: https://dailynewshungary.com/hungary-has-the-highest-rates-o...

Belarus - male population.

I expect it's worse in Russia, but there's not much in reliable stats.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/972561/belarus-alcoholis...

You suspect that only because of the heavy anti-Russian sentiment going around right now (leading to a negative bias without fact checking).

Alcohol consumption is down significantly there and has been on the decline. They’re not even in the top 15 countries who consume the most:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/01/russian-alcoho...

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-c...

Interesting, thanks for the links.

So curbs in alcohol sales work pretty well!

Maybe (but you can still buy booze illegally after 11pm - or at bars). I think it's more or less greatly improved economic conditions and improving quality of life. The 1990s and early 2000s in Russia (Belarus & Ukraine as well) were seriously dire. I was surprised by how many people didn't drink in my travels there. A good movie to check out on that time period is "Brother" (Brat).

It can be done by a certain percentage of people.