Whelp, this is a big question and I would like to use a lifeline to call a friend, specifically /u/vertexoflife who might be able to provide interesting input since the Victorian Era saw both the peak of opium usage and introduction of early legislation and campaigning by interest groups against drug use in general.

Drug use in early modern Europe was much, much more common than it is today, however it was generally in the form of home remedies and to a lesser extent recreationally (although where the line between medicinally taking opium for almost any discomfort and using it recreationally goes is up for debate). The medicinal properties of opium have been know since ancient times and used medicinally since at least roman times. However, it was with the introduction of Laudanum in the 16th century that it started seeing more widespread use.

Laudanum saw some pretty frightening use as a cure-all of increasing popularity. Baby crying? Give him some opium. Teenage daughter being a bitch? Opium. Wife has the vapours or some other fashionable female affliction? Opium. General feelings of unease? Opium? Basically anything that made you feel bad could be treated with opium, which makes sense because opiates makes you feel pretty damn good.

As the British Empire, and with it international trade, expanded, so did availability of drugs. Opium in particular. However smoking opium was perhaps not the most common thing in the early modern era. The public became aware of opium dens sometime in the 1860's with the media attention the Dark England trend brought. Following that a series of high profile publications like Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood or Charlotte Bronte's Villette feature high profile depictions of opium dens and laudanum addiction. By the early 19th century opium was described as being "as popular as alcohol" and by 1864 Dr. Julian Hunter noted in a report to the privy council "A man who is setting about a hard job takes his pill as preliminary, and many never take their beer without dropping a piece of opium into it".

We see lots of mentions of opium use in a frightening variety of forms during the victorian era but smoking it seems to have been relatively limited to opium dens. At least that is where we see mentions of it most frequently such as the sordid description in Dickens. Almost all the opium consumed in Britain (and indeed western europe) was imported from Turkey, not India.

It would seem opium grew in popularity from a medicinal use by surgeons to a home remedy to a cure-all available from every pharmacy, hawker and back alley entrepreneur. As availability grew, so did usage. We know for a fact that by the victorian era it was common among all social groups. By the second half of the victorian era it was beginning to be percieved as a problem and by the end the societal views of opium had shifted from seeing it as a habit to seeing it as an addiction.

By the 1910's doctors were warning against opium addicition which lead to opium being included in the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1920.

TL;DR - Opium gradually grew in popularity from the introduction of Laudanum in the 16th century. Originally as a surgical anesthetic, then as a home rememdy, a cure-all and finally a recreative drug. Perceptions of drug use gradually shifted over time and with the peak of opium popularity in the late 19th century the public awareness and resistance against it also increased drastically.