Drugs and Drug Abuse
Read the following passage carefully and answer the given questions.
Use of drugs has been on the rise, especially among the youth. This is really a cause of concern as it could result in many harmful effects. Proper education and guidance would enable young people to safeguard themselves against these dangerous behaviour patterns and follow healthy lifestyles. The drugs which are commonly abused are opioids, cannabinoids and coca alkaloids. The majority of these are obtained from flowering plants. Some are obtained from fungi. Various plants, fruits and seeds having hallucinogenic properties have been used for hundreds of years in folk-medicine, religious ceremonies and rituals all over the globe. When these are taken for a purpose other than medicinal use or in amounts/frequency that impairs one's physical, physiological or psychological functions, it constitutes drug abuse. These days, some drugs are also being abused by some sports-persons.
Chemically, heroin is:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Diacetylmorphine
Heroin, commonly called smack, is an opioid. It is made by the acetylation of morphine, which is taken from the latex of the opium poppy. Chemically it is diacetylmorphine, a white, odourless, bitter, crystalline compound.
(1) Dichloroacetylene — Incorrect. This is a simple chlorinated hydrocarbon. It is not an opioid.
(2) Diacetylmorphine — Correct. It is the chemical name of heroin.
(3) Acetyl-pentene — Incorrect. It is not the name of heroin or of any other drug in the passage.
(4) Di-methylacetylene — Incorrect. This is a simple hydrocarbon, also called 2-butyne. It has no link with the opioids.
Note: The passage is taken from NCERT. NTA has put lines of the NCERT text together to make it. Most CUET (UG) questions come straight from NCERT, so study the book line by line, including figures and their titles.
NCERT Extract:
Drugs and Alcohol Abuse – “Opioids are the drugs, which bind to specific opioid receptors present in our central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract. Heroin (Figure 7.7), commonly called smack is chemically diacetylmorphine which is a white, odourless, bitter crystalline compound. This is obtained by acetylation of morphine (Figure 7.7), which is extracted from the latex of poppy plant Papaver somniferum (Figure 7.8).”