The Commerce Police Department charged two local men with a total of four drug offenses following a traffic stop for a broken tail light. The traffic stop at 1:18 a.m. Sunday morning led to the discovery that both had consumed prescription cough syrup.
According to the incident report, an officer was coming out of Ashworth Mobile Home Park on Homer Road when a car with a broken taillight passed him. The officer pursued, and the vehicle turned right on Pine Street “at a high rate of speed.” The officer pulled it over at Ridgeway Street.
As he approached the vehicle, the officer said he observed the driver, Travaris Rashawn Glasper, 18, 24 Lancashire Drive, Commerce, stuffing a pill bottle between the two seats. When he asked both occupants for their identification, he said he noted a second pill container in Glasper’s pants pocket.
The officer asked about the containers, and Glasper reported that they contained cough syrup. One was labeled hydromet syrup, and was empty but for some residue. The second bottle was labeled APAP Codeine 120 with someone else’s name on the label.
A search of the vehicle yielded no contraband, but the officer said he found a third container on the ground, labeled Mucus Relief Sinus medication.
The officer asked the men where they were coming from. At first, the report said, they claimed to be coming from Mt. Calvary Church, but they eventually admitted coming from a friend’s residence at Heritage Crossing Apartments, Mount Olive Road.
Glasper and Tarious Dontrelis Varnum, 18, 96 Kensington Court, Commerce, both admitted to consuming the cough medicine, which they said someone gave them.
Both were charged with prescription drugs not in their original container and violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. Glasper was also charged with a Class D license infraction and an equipment charge.
The report indicated that when the two men were booked at the Jackson County Jail, jailers found two Tramadol HCL tablets in Glasper’s pants. Glasper allegedly told the jailers he did not know what the pills were.
