I'm replying to the postulate made by OP that potentially addictive items need to be regulated strongly, using the example of strong alcohol restrictions from the country he grew up with.

The sarcastic comment that "it was going well" was made to highlight that the very example cited was unfortunate, with many, many countries with unregulated strong alcohol having notably lower alcoholism percentages. Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, etc.

So perhaps the root of the problem is not the lack of prohibition, or the lack of monopolistic state control, as, clearly, other countries have done better without. Which bring the thought that perhaps, it is not much more than an unsatisfactory, overbearing measure due to a lack of more fundamental approach to "healthy" alcohol consumption, whatever it might be.