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.
I expect it's worse in Russia, but there's not much in reliable stats.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/972561/belarus-alcoholis...
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...
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.
