Franklin County Sheriff's Office continuing to fight meth problem

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FRANKLIN COUNTY (WSLS 10) - The Franklin County Sheriff's office is continuing to fight a drug problem that a lot of other agencies in Southwest Virginia are seeing too.

"With meth it continued to be a problem as some of the ingredients to manufacture it are really accessible," says Capt. Paul Caldwell, Franklin County Sheriff's Office.

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The sheriff's office made a lot of improvements this year.

This includes restructuring its department by adding more deputies on the road to be on the lookout. Investigators also worked with more businesses.

"We're starting to work hand in hand with some of the pharmacies to monitor some of those ingredients that come out of there to give us a flag of folks we should look after," says Capt. Caldwell.

The sheriff's office expected to break a record in the number of meth lab cases this year but it handled 20 cases this year the same number as last year.

They're still working on ways to curb the problem especially since many of their cases involve re-offenders.

"We'll look at all options and increase penalties now," says Caldwell. "We have to look to the side of locking people up isn't always the best or easy answer sometime with every situation. They may need some help behind those lines as far as recovery."