Retiring DEA Chief Sees Drug War Gains

The retiring chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration says that he has picked the “ideal” time to quit government because the nation has turned the corner in its fight against such drugs as heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

“In my view, things are going well,” the official, Francis M. Mullen Jr., said in an interview this week. “The aura of defeatism that did prevail (in the fight against illicit drugs) is gone. We’re going in the right direction.”

As evidence, Mullen cited higher wholesale prices for cocaine in the Miami area, although he acknowledged that such prices have yet to spread to the rest of the nation; a “stabilizing” of heroin addiction, and the lowest daily use of marijuana by U.S. teen-agers recorded over the last 10 years by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Wholesale cocaine prices in Miami, where much of the drug enters the country, soared from $16,000 a kilogram (2.2 pounds) in 1982 to the current price of $40,000, according to Mullen. Usually, a lower price reflects a greater availability of the drug.

However, the purity of cocaine sold retail--another measure of the substance’s availability--has not declined from the 35% high it reached in 1982, Mullen conceded. Nonetheless, he said he is encouraged by greater public awareness of cocaine’s danger.

“It boils down to supply and demand--and the one we can control most in this country is demand,” Mullen said. Although heroin continues to be “readily available,” its abuse is not growing, which means that drug fighters now must concentrate on reducing addiction, he said.

In the immediate future, Mullen predicted, the DEA will step up its efforts to control the distribution of chemicals used in the manufacture of cocaine, heroin and phencyclidine, or PCP.

Under a program of voluntary compliance, manufacturers of ether, a “precursor” used to make cocaine, have been reporting to DEA large-volume shipments abroad, particularly to Latin America. But the agency has not been as successful in its voluntary program for makers of acetic anhydride, the primary “precursor” for heroin, Mullen said.

Piperidine, a precursor for PCP, was ruled a “controlled substance” under federal law two years ago, requiring its manufacturers to be licensed and to maintain security in the chemical’s production, storage and distribution.

Mullen said that he harbors no residual bitterness from the more than two-year fight over his Senate confirmation as head of the DEA. But he acknowledged that FBI Director William H. Webster had talked him out of asking that his nomination be withdrawn during the lengthy process.

Mullen said that he is departing mostly to “change career direction” and enter the private sector for the first time--a move made easier by the provision that allows him to retire from the FBI now that he has turned 50. He will return to his home state of Connecticut on March 1 to join a private security firm.

He has also talked with Republican officials in Connecticut who “are interested in my running for office” but has made no decision on whether he will become a candidate.