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 by

getting prescriptions from a physician, police said.

"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.

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