Correlation doesn’t imply causation. The US has one of the most relaxed opiate policies imaginable until about 10 years ago. You could walk into many doctors and walk out with an opiate script. It didn’t end well.
Of course just relaxing everything is not the point - you have to address the structural and economic reasons why people become addicts in the first place.
Few if anyone wants to be an addict
But also has some of the harshest penalties for illegal opiate usage. We didn't get 25% of the worlds prison by not aggressively arresting and jailing drug users