Chemist was high at work for 8 years: court docs

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Court documents say a former Massachusetts chemist was high on drugs almost every day for the nearly eight years she worked at an Amherst drug lab.

According to the documents released Tuesday, investigators found that Sonja Farak tested drug samples and testified in court while under the influence of methamphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, LSD and other drugs between 2005 and 2013.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey said the information gathered about Farak "will no doubt have implications for many cases."

Many of the shocking details came from Farak's own grand jury testimony, including that she once smoked crack before a 2012 state police accreditation inspection of the now-closed lab.

Farak pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, stealing cocaine from the lab and unlawful possession in 2014.

The attorney who represented Farak during her criminal case did not immediately respond to a telephone message from The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Farak's case was part of a rash of issues at Massachusetts crime labs in 2013. That year, another chemist, Annie Dookhan, was indicated on 27 charges in a case that threatened to unravel thousands of drug convictions.

The accusations against Farak, unlike those against Dookhan, didn't involve falsification of tests or dry labbing, the practice of visually identifying samples instead of performing required chemical testing. Officials had originally hoped that discrepancy meant Farak's situation would not have an impact on past criminal prosecutions.