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."