The disturbing true story behind Netflix's new true crime docuseries, How to Fix a Drug Scandal.

This post contains spoilers for Netflix’s true-crime docuseries, How to Fix a Drug Scandal.

In a criminal justice system that is run by humans – lawyers, police, defendants, juries, judges, and more – it is not uncommon for justice to go very wrong.

From 13th to When They See Us, countless documentaries and biopics have unearthed the cracks within the American criminal justice system, exposing how human errors or misjudgment can lead to a complete failure of the system.

In the new Netflix documentary series, How to Fix a Drug Scandal, it becomes even more clear how the actions of just one or two people can affect the lives of thousands.

Watch the trailer for Netflix’s How to Fix a Drug Scandal below. Post continues after video.

The series, which was released last weekend, follows two chemists working in drug labs – Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan – who meddled with evidence related to the cases of people convicted of drug-related offences.

The consequences were unprecedented. Thousands of lives were upturned by the actions of the two women. In total, Farak and Dookhan’s mishandling of drug evidence led to more than 47,000 drug convictions based on unreliable evidence.

Here’s what we know about the true story behind Netflix’s How to Fix a Drug Scandal.

Who is Sonja Farak?

When Sonja Farak graduated high school, her future looked incredibly promising.

At the time, Farak was a high-performing student and the first female in Rhode Island to be on a high school football team.

After graduating from Portsmouth High School, Farak went on to study biochemistry, eventually graduating with “high distinction” and multiple awards from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Shortly after graduating, Farak began working for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in 2003, before later moving on to a new role for the Massachusetts State Police.

While working for the State Police, Farak ran forensic analysis on the drugs that officers brought in, testing their chemical makeup and sharing their findings in court.

During her nine years in the job, Farak's analysis led to between 8,000 and 10,000 defendants being convicted of drug-related offences due to her reports.

As the documentary uncovers, however, Farak tampered with the results of hundreds – if not thousands – of tests.

While on the job, Farak developed a serious drug problem.

For several years, Farak used liquid methamphetamine, LSD, cocaine and other drugs while at work, which she obtained from controlled substances used for testing and even from the evidence itself, to cope with her personal problems and sustain her addiction.

Towards the end of her career, Farak even began stealing cocaine to manufacture crack. She was also often high while on the job, which evidently impacted the accuracy of her testing – especially considering her assessments directly influenced whether defendants would be sent to jail.

As there were no cameras and limited employees in the lab that Farak was working from, her drug use and evidence tampering continued right up until her arrest in 2013.

Farak was arrested after Rendalo Penate's lawyers questioned the drug-testing process. It was soon discovered that Farak was high on LSD while testing samples for Penate's case.

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In 2014, Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In 2015, she was released from prison. Farak, who is reportedly now sober, has managed to avoid the spotlight since.

Who is Annie Dookhan?

Although Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan didn't know each other personally, the pair were both responsible for testing confiscated drugs and sharing their expert findings in court.

Unlike Farak, however, Dookhan wasn't stealing samples.

Instead, she faked thousands upon thousands of drug tests at Boston's Hinton State Laboratory Institute in 2012.

Dookhan, who had a personal relationship with prosecutors, was overzealous about pleasing them by fabricating test results to speed up the legal process.

Dookhan was known to add weight to drug samples, which could heighten charges, and mixed drug samples to get her results.

In 2012, after being suspended from her lab work, Dookhan was arrested.

After being questioned by police, authorities learned that Dookhan had been 'dry labbing', which means identifying drug samples by simply looking at them, rather than actually physically testing them in the required manner.

In 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to charges including evidence tampering and obstruction of justice. She was sentenced to time in prison, before being paroled in April 2016.

Following Dookhan's arrest, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dropped more than 21,000 drug convictions which relied on samples provided by Dookhan.

Similarly, the court tossed out thousands more drug convictions that were linked to Farak.

At the time, the decision to overturn the drug convictions was labelled a "historic victory" for those wrongfully convicted of drug crimes.

Despite this, however, thousands of those defendants who had their cases tossed out had already served their time in prison.

Similarly, most defendants also continued to experience "collateral consequences" from their wrongful convictions as drug-related convictions can make it difficult to obtain a job or a loan in the United States.

Feature Image: Netflix.

How to Fix a Drug Scandal is available to watch on Netflix now.

For more on this topic:

• Kim Kardashian's new crime documentary is both compelling and wildly problematic.
• The 10 best documentaries on Netflix and Stan to stimulate your brain in isolation.
• From Bloom to even more Louis Theroux documentaries: Here's everything coming to Stan this April.
• Every single TV show and movie that's dropping on Netflix Australia in April 2020.

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