Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal Former University of Massachusetts Amherst Chemist Sharon Salem Interview - Rigged: The Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal Podcast

Episode 6

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Published on:

18th Oct 2020

Former University of Massachusetts Amherst Chemist Sharon Salem Interview

Episode 6 of the Rigged Podcast has Jamie, Ilyas and Chris Post again listening to previously unknown interview with UMass Amherst chemist Sharon Salem. According to official FOIA responses from the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, this interview does not exist. Yet somehow, the Rigged Podcast was able to obtain this damning look into the "scientific" practices of the now shuttered drug testing lab from Salem, a chemist and evidence officer for the lab for nearly 30 years.

Back in 2015 the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office conducted a secret investigation into the the policies and processes of the UMass Amherst Drug Lab. This exclusive interview with Sharon Salem has never been heard by the public before and resulted in at least one long time Department of Public Health employee being forced into "retirement". This interview could have far reaching implications for all the testing performed at this, and other, drug testing labs in the state.

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About the Podcast

Rigged: The Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal Podcast

Hosts Jamie Folk and Ilyas Rona take a deep dive into the case responsible for the greatest violation of constitutional rights in Massachusetts history

On September 28, 2012, Massachusetts state chemist Annie Dookhan was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and falsification of academic records. Approximately four months later another chemist, Sonja Farak, was arrested for using the drugs she was supposed to be testing and the Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal was born.

Hosts Jamie Folk and Ilyas Rona will be exploring the William H Hinton, UMass Amherst and State Police crime labs associated with this scandal and speak with the lawyers whose clients rights were violated as a result of the fraud committed by the chemists in these labs. Through their investigation of this case, Folk and Rona have found that the crimes of Dookhan and Farak were just the tip of the iceberg and that multiple chemists from three state labs lied on the stand, knowingly sent people to jail for possessing drugs that were not illegal and wanted to help law enforcement send as many people to jail as possible.

Jamie Folk is an independent journal who has been investigating this case since Dookhan's arrest was first reported. He has obtained over 70k documents from the state and has interviewed several lawyers, journalists, politicians, law enforcement officials and others connected with the case over the past 7 years.

Ilyas Rona is a lawyer who represented a man sent to prison by Dookhan and another Hinton lab chemist for possessing what turned out to be a cashew for two years. He has been investigating the Hinton, Amherst and State Police labs ever since.

About your host

James Folk

Jamie Folk has been researching and reporting on the Massachusetts Drug Lab Scandal since 2013. He has worked in the biotech industry around Boston for the past 17 years in the Quality Assurance space. He was a volunteer with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections from 2010 to 2015 running the Alternatives to Violence (AVP) workshops for inmates and met many victims of these labs in prison.