Pubdate: Sun, 09 May 2004
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Contact: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html
Website: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Henry Farber

NOT THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Elderly Couple Hit With Drug Charges

She waited tables during the bygone era of meat-and-potatoes menus. He's a 
former welder who has never been in trouble with the law.

Recently Juanita F. Edwards, 77, suffered a stroke. And her husband, Harry 
Edwards, 83, has a pacemaker, uses a wheelchair, and takes medication to 
dull the pain that five back operations have failed to alleviate.

It might seem unlikely, then, that the two would be arrested on drug charges.

But police say undercover informants posing as drug users paid $1,600 for 
hundreds of prescription pills in March and April at the Edwardses' home in 
a pleasant Henry County subdivision. Later this month, the elderly couple 
could find themselves before a grand jury.

The couple's defense attorney concedes that the Edwardses, married for 38 
years, cannot proclaim their innocence because, after all, four of the 
transactions were electronically recorded.

"But they are not Bonnie and Clyde," said the lawyer, John Webb.

Webb maintains that the couple, who live near McDonough, may have been 
duped by a younger drug abuser who begged for pills, then turned them in to 
police when he got in trouble.

Everyone agrees the case stands as a tragic reminder to monitor senior 
relatives' handling of drugs --- especially painkillers and muscle relaxers 
that are often abused.

"Prescription drug abuse is as paramount as any illicit substance problem 
we could name," said Henry County police Lt. Ken Turner.

"We treated them just like any other drug dealer."

Well, almost.

Instead of jail cells, the couple spent two nights in separate cinder-block 
holding rooms, with cots stretched out near stainless steel toilets.

Juanita Edwards "told me it was the worst night of her life," Webb said.

One of the couple's children posted bail of $10,000 for each parent April 
30, two days after police arrested the retired pair and charged them with 
selling pain medication.

Between March 30 and April 19, police say, informants wearing recording 
devices bought four kinds of medicines, all frequently misused and 
potentially habit-forming. They were Xanax, an anxiety and tension reliever 
known for intense withdrawal symptoms; hydrocodone, a synthetic codeine 
used to relieve coughs and pain; Lorcet, a pain reliever containing 
narcotic analgesics; and Soma, a muscle relaxer that blocks pain sensations.

The agents paid roughly $3 to $5 per pill. When police raided the house 
April 28, they found about 200 doses of the medications and $3,145 in cash, 
said Turner, the Henry County police lieutenant. The couple, Turner said, 
were motivated by profit.

He said police were trying to learn more about $30,000 the couple recently 
deposited in a Henry County bank account. But the couple's attorney says 
the deposit is easy to explain: It was a transfer of holdings from 
Jonesboro, where they used to live, to their bank in Henry County, where 
they now live.

No family members who were contacted wanted to be interviewed. And the 
couple did not answer the door of their ranch-style house on one of the 
choice lots off Tamarack Trail near McDonough.

The home is a suburban privacy seeker's dream: a cul-de-sac tucked into a 
hillside. Within a mile, a few remaining horse and cow pastures break up 
the scenery for commuters along Ga. 155.

"This little area is so peaceful," said neighbor Lee Ann Downs, 34. "We 
were so pleased about an older couple moving in. And lo and behold, it was 
the older neighbors that got in trouble."

Police are investigating to see whether the couple went "doctor-shopping" 
in pursuit of drugs to sell --- and whether doctors and pharmacists acted 
properly, Turner said.

To that, Webb responded: "These are not active drug pushers." They may have 
been manipulated by "a son of a friend of the family" who wanted some of 
their drugs.

"They were ripe for the picking," Webb said, "by a smart user."
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