Week In Review: Drug Lab Oversight; Opioids; Duck Boat Accident Raises Questions

We go over the week in the news, beginning with new revelations about astonishing misconduct by a former state drug lab chemist.

"In drug cases, the principle evidence is the drugs," former federal Judge Nancy Gertner told us this week. "And, if you can't trust that test, then what else are you going to trust?"

The report from Attorney General Maura Healey's office finds that Amherst chemist Sonja Farak consumed drugs from the lab almost every day for eight years. She stole from the lab's stock of drugs, as well as from evidence that she was supposed to be testing.

"When you try to run a drug war on the cheap, there are consequences for it," said Northampton defense attorney Luke Ryan. "We're now in a position where the chickens have come home to roost."

Shira Springer, investigative reporter for the sports section of The Boston Globe. She tweets@ShiraSpringer.

Charles Chieppo, research fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School and head of Chieppo Strategies, a public policy writing and advocacy firm.

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