The Globe reports as many as 200 cases in federal court may have been tainted by everybody's favorite drug chemist.

At a press conference yesterday, state Attorney General Martha Coakley minced no words about Annie Dookhan, the state chemist accused of tampering with drug samples in thousands of criminal cases:

Annie Dookhan's alleged actions corrupted the integrity of the entire criminal justice system. There are many victims as a result of this.

A man indicted last year as on charges of being a repeat cocaine dealer will likely have the charges dropped next week because of problems related to the substance former state chemist Annie Dookhan certified was cocaine, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Specifically, the DA's office reports, re-testing by State Police shows the material was, in fact, an inert substance. At a hearing on Oct. 5 in Suffolk Superior Court, prosecutors will file a document known as a nolle prosequi asking that the charges against Jeffrey Banks be dropped.

State Public Health Commissioner Jon Auerbach today announced his resignation over the burgeoning crisis at the former DPH labs in Jamaica Plain, in which thousands of evidence samples in criminal cases were potentially done incorrectly.

It is clear that there was insufficient quality monitoring, reporting and investigating on the part of supervisors and managers surrounding the former Department of Public Health drug lab in Jamaica Plain – and ultimately, as Commissioner, the buck stops with me.

Once again, people in prison on drug charges could be let out because of problems with the way the state handled testing of the substances they possessed.

This time, officials are investigating whether a chemist at a state lab in Jamaica Plain compromised evidence, possibly in thousands of cases across the state.