Granted by decree of US Govt BUT they weren’t officially classed till the 80s or so (I think around the ADA act) ... I had said at the time that the only reason they were put in that category was so they could spend govt funds to ‘cure’ them and make the users eligible for disability... I do believe that prior that declaration the govt was treating drug abusers.
As to cigarettes there was a movie made in 1957 that starred Robert Mitchum called ‘Heaven Knows, Mr Allison’ and they mention cigarettes as being coffin nails etc etc.(book took place in 41, movie 44 - so I don’t really know if that was a throw in or did people ‘talk like that in 41’?? but I remember calling cigarettes coffin nails in early 50s....
I bring this up because the ‘do gooders’ in the 60s and 70s were acting like they just invented ‘bad’ cigarettes.
People still sue over tobacco sickness but it isn’t like there was no warning.
I shouldn’t qualify for tobacco ‘problems’ because growing up WE referred to them as coffin nails and knew they caused problems.
When I grew up in the 50s and 60s, my Dad always referred to tobacco, alcohol and even caffeine as drugs to be avoided.