Islam bans alcohol, but it also requires praying 5 times a day and usually a lot of going to Mosque with other Muslims and a general belief of unity and being in a common struggle against enemy types. I wonder if all that cultural stuff protects people from common psychological problems which they might otherwise try to stifle with alcohol. I think alcoholism is often a coping mechanism for some other psychological problem. If you just ban alcohol but don't have the culture to help with people's problems, maybe you make things worse. Mental health care is kind of an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and doesn't seem very efficient or effective either.