After he was

busted for selling over 600 tablets of prescription muscle relaxers to

an undercover officer, Bruce Turner of Sharpsburg tried to rationalize

his actions to several unsympathetic members of the Fayette County Drug

Task Force.

"I'm just

trying to pay my bills; I'm in the middle of a divorce," Turner said

after he was arrested at GTO's drive-in restaurant off Ga. Highway 85

South in Fayetteville, where the deal went down Feb. 19. The majority

of the pills are known as "Soma," a muscle relaxer whose affects

are heightened when taken with alcohol, police said.

Turner was

charged with one felony count of selling synthetic narcotics and another

prescription medicine called Lortabs. He also faces a felony charge of

possession of marijuana.

After the arrest,

officers searched Turner's Sharpsburg residence where several more bottles

of the medications were found, police said. Turner acquired the medicines

"He was

stockpiling them and selling them," said Lt. Mike Pruitt of the Fayette

County Sheriff's Department, which oversees the task force with additional

manpower from the Tyrone Police Department and the Pike County Sheriff's

Department.

"This

dope came to Fayette from Coweta County, but he's dealing to people in

Fayette," Pruitt said.