2) According to the WHO, Korea only drinks marginally more that the US, and Japan less: https://www.who.int/gho/alcohol/en/. TBH, this is a bit of a stereotype.
I'm confused by how to interpret 3. Are you saying:
- "If it's only for medical use, then it will not worsen the situation". I would overall agree with you on this.
- "Even if it's freely available it will not worsen the situation". I don't believe this. I don't see how going from a situation where smoking is 1: illegal, 2: actually complex (unlike in Europe/North America), 3: extremely risky on the legal side, 4: socially taboo, to a situation where you can have shops on the street would not worsen drug issues. I can't find any studies has been conducted in any comparable societies, so we are both speculating, but I just find your point absolutely unbelievable.