SPRINGFIELD — A judge has dismissed several drug cases connected to a former state chemist who authorities say was high almost every day she went to work at a Massachusetts drug lab for eight years.

Hampden County Superior Court Judge Richard Carey on Monday dismissed the convictions of seven defendants and allowed another to withdraw a guilty plea.

The cases are connected to evidence tested by Sonja Farak, of Northampton. Farak pleaded guilty in January 2014 to stealing cocaine from the state crime lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was sentenced to 18 months behind bars and five years of probation. She served her sentence and has been released from prison.

Farak was high on methamphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, LSD and other drugs during most of her time at the lab, even when she testified in court, according to a state investigative report. Farak worked at the lab between 2005 and 2013.

Northampton attorney Luke Ryan said Monday that one of the cases dismissed relates to his client Lizardo Vega, who in 2010 pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin, one count of distribution of heroin, and one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

While Ryan said it was sad it took so long for the truth to come out, he is pleased that Carey established a paradigm for handling the thousands of cases Farak worked on.

“The next step will be to help other defendants obtain the benefit and relief they will be entitled to if this remains good law,” Ryan said.

Ryan said the majority of those affected in Farak’s case have served their sentences but are still living with the consequences of the tainted convictions, from losing their driver’s licenses to struggling with access to public housing.

In his decision Monday, Carey also blasted prosecutors associated with Farak’s case. He found that two former assistant attorneys general “tampered with the fair administration of justice” by deliberately concealing documents and making misrepresentations to a judge.

Ryan said he appreciated Carey’s candor, saying the conduct by the attorney general’s office “was beyond the pale.”

Attorney General Maura Healey’s office says it’s reviewing Carey’s decision.

Farak’s case is unrelated to the case of Annie Dookhan, who worked at a state drug lab in Boston. Dookhan was sentenced in November 2013 to at least three years in prison after pleading guilty to faking test results in criminal cases that jeopardized thousands of convictions.

In April, prosecutors moved to throw out more than 21,000 drug convictions linked to Dookhan’s work. The American Civil Liberties Union said it was the largest dismissal of criminal convictions in U.S. history.

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