Part 1: Episode 221
In the first of two episodes, Glenn and Eric discuss Netflix’s “How to Fix a Drug Scandal” (2020), covering the actions and consequences of two Massachusetts drug chemists. In this episode, they mostly focus on the Sonja Farak aspect, who was a drug chemist, addicted to drugs and stealing drugs from her standards cabinet and evidence. The guys discuss the issue of ‘random drug screenings’ of crime lab employees and the lack of other various controls in the U.S. The lack of controls can allow circumstances like this to occur, here and elsewhere, undetected for a long time. They also share some personal experiences from their past related to friends/co-workers with serious drug problems.
Part 2: Episode 222
Eric and Glenn finish out their discussion of the new Netflix documentary “How to Fix a Drug Scandal” (2020). In this episode we switch our focus on the dry-labbing of drug tests by Annie Dookhan, and how long it took for those tests and convictions from those test to finally get tossed. The episode concludes with the story of Luke Ryan and his crusade to finally find the evidence that clearly demonstrated that Sonja Farak had been using drugs for years and not just months.
Part 3: Luke Ryan Interview Episode 223
In the final and third part of the series on the Massachusetts drug scandals and Netflix documentary, we interview Luke Ryan, the defense attorney featured in the documentary and who represented several of the clients affected by the scandal. Luke described how and why he fought to uncover the truth that was being swept under the rug by the Attorney General’s office. We also discussed a number of other issues that were not shown in the documentary, including deliberate and willful collusion by the drug chemists to mislead the court, the results of a quality audit that occurred, and early signs that drug chemists were engaged in misconduct for years. Luke also shared his views on a number of criminal justice and social issues such as civil forfeitures, the war on drugs, discovery of predicate questions, and field test kits for narcotics. Settle in for a super-sized episode uncovering the unbelievable and fantastic story behind the Netflix documentary and the perfect storm that could allow such behavior to go unchecked for years.
