DEA AGENT URGES TEENS TO EXCEL IN LIFE

Shirley Armstead believes if she can make it in life, anyone can.

Armstead told about 100 young people attending the National Youth Sports Program at Southeast Missouri State University Friday that she was one of 10 children in a family where each of her parents worked two jobs to feed the children.

"I worked in a White Castle for $1.20 per hour as soon as I was old enough to go to work," said Armstead. "I didn't like it much, but I knew it was what I had to do to make it."

Today Armstead is a special agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency office in St. Louis. She serves as a public information officer for a five-state region. She worked as an undercover agent for six years before taking her current assignment as demand reduction coordinator.

"Since 70 percent of the people who use drugs continue to hold their jobs as long as they can, it's my job to go into businesses and educate people about the dangers of drug abuse," said Armstead. "When you are addicted to drugs, the job is always the last thing to go. Drug abusers need that income to support their habits."

The road to her position with the DEA was not an easy one.

"I had to work for everything I got in life," she said. "And today I don't regret it one bit.

"If there was anything in our lives that our parents taught us, it was that hard work and determination would get us where we wanted to go," Armstead said. "That is a lesson I will keep with me for the rest of my life."

She also told the group about her brother, Ray Armstead, who won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics for the 4x400 and this year organized the 1994 Olympic Torch Run throughout Missouri to the summer festival in St. Louis.

"In order to do anything in this world you must be and you must stay drug free," said Armstead. "You also have to get as much education as you can and be the best person you possibly can be.

"I truly believe the young people in this room -- if you stay straight -- will make this country better," she said. "We can't do it without you."

Armstead mixed reality with her words of inspiration. She told the group of the sacrifices made daily by DEA agents in waging a war on drugs.

"They are burying a DEA agent today in Arizona who was shot five times during an undercover drug buy," said Armstead. "This man lost his life because there are people out there breaking the law -- growing, buying and selling drugs.

"The job that we have is not a joke," she said. "In fact, one of my least favorite parts is my responsibility to carry a gun everywhere I go at all times.

"The reason we have to carry guns is because people on the streets are carrying guns, and a lot of times they are better armed than we are," she said. "If you take anything away from this today, remember this: Drugs are dangerous -- to your health, to your life and to your friends and families."