How to Fix a Drug Scandal

You Can’t Make This Up

Netflix

True Crime, Documentary, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Film Interviews

4.2 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2020

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After nearly a decade of working for Massachusetts State Drug Testing labs, two chemists were found to have tampered with evidence connected to tens of thousands of cases against people accused of drug trafficking and possession. How To Fix a Drug Scandal, which is now streaming on Netflix, brings to light the investigation behind the corruption and cover-ups of these cases. In this episode, Rebecca Lavoie (Crime Writers on…) speaks with Director and Producer Erin Lee Carr about why she chose to tell the stories of chemist’s Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan, discusses the lives of those affected by the chemist’s choices, and about her own journey to sobriety. There will be spoilers so watch all of the episodes on Netflix before listening here! A note to listeners, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this episode was not recorded in a studio. Please forgive the change in audio quality.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to you can't make this up a companion podcast for Netflix original true crime stories.
0:06.0	I'm Rebecca Lervoy, your host.
0:12.0	In each episode we'll take you behind the scenes of a true crime documentary or narrative
0:16.7	feature.
0:17.7	I sit down with the creative minds behind those films and they answer the lingering questions
0:21.8	you have about the stories you just watched.
0:24.8	This week we're talking with director and producer Aaron Lee Carr.
0:28.2	Her latest work is now streaming on Netflix and it's called How to Fix a Drug Scandal. It's about the investigation of two chemists who worked for Massachusetts state drug testing labs.
0:37.0	For nearly a decade, they tampered with evidence in tens of thousands of cases
0:42.0	against people accused of drug possession and trafficking.
0:46.2	I was smoking at the lab, smoking at home.
0:49.7	I actually smoked in the evidence room. I was totally controlled by my addiction.
0:56.7	At these drug labs a single chemist can do thousands of cases a year.
1:00.4	It wasn't really clear the extent to which things had gone wrong.
1:03.0	She didn't realize how many people it would harm.
1:05.0	And it turns out it's not just one but two chemists.
1:08.0	This was one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in the history of Massachusetts.
1:13.5	All these convictions needed to be wiped away.
1:16.2	We are investigating somebody who's
1:18.0	tampered with evidence.
1:19.4	The scope of this could be very large.
1:21.9	It's amazing the ripple effect of a single person's act.
	...

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