LYNN — Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said sorting out court convictions thrown into question by a state drug testing scandal has “put a big strain on my office.”

Blodgett said he has assigned six employees to sort through 5,600 cases to determine if convictions won by his prosecutors were clouded by chemist Annie Dookhan’s handling of drug evidence seized by police and sent to the state laboratory for testing.

“We’re stretched as thin as we can be stretched,” he said.

Blodgett said prosecutors have been successful to date in upholding sentences handed down in seven out of 10 cases involving evidence handled by Dookhan.

“No one should sit in jail for one day if they were railroaded, but we’re not dismissing a case where a gun charge or domestic violence was involved,” he said in a wide-ranging interview Thursday with the editorial board of The Daily Item that also covered such subjects as gun control and medical marijuana.

Dookhan resigned last March and pleaded not guilty Jan. 9 to three counts of obstruction of justice. Blodgett said the thousands of court convictions thrown into doubt by the accusations against Dookhan boil down to a “failure of oversight.”

Illegal drugs and the often-deadly consequences related to their use are a top concern for a district attorney who talks about the close connection between drug use and gun violence.

Blodgett said Brandon Payne, the man shot by police during a motor vehicle stop last July, planned to commit a deadly home invasion after police summonsed him to court on a marijuana charge. Following a 2012 investigation, Blodgett ruled the use of deadly force by police justifiable.

He said the Payne investigation grew out of a federal wiretap investigation and said district attorneys are filing legislation updating a 1968 state wiretap law so that police can zero in on “bad guys'” cellular telephone conversations.

“It’s a tool we need to fight gangs,” he said.

Blodgett said drugs play a prominent role in firearms cases brought into “gun courts,” including one in Lynn. A 120-day prosecution phase applied to firearms cases has produced convictions or pleas.

“Guns and drugs go hand in hand,” he said.

He praised Police Chief Kevin Coppinger and School Superintendent Catherine Latham with supporting efforts to educate public school children at an early age about avoiding youth gangs.

Blodgett said marijuana addiction is a serious problem that he has discussed with parents and said medical marijuana dispensaries set to open shop in Massachusetts under a referendum approved by voters last year “become a magnet for criminal activity.”

“I’ve talked to enough who said their children are doing heroin and they started with marijuana,” he said.

Blodgett said he is “an ardent supporter” of the constitutional right to bear arms, but said Congress must act on gun control legislation.

“My perspective is assault weapons should be in the hands of military and law enforcement,” he said.

He said details surrounding mass killers James Holmes and Adam Lanza’s actions must be examined to develop proposals ensuring information on violent people is available to police.

Blodgett said reports on Lanza’s mental health care underline the need to provide more help to teenagers, including homeless teens, who “age out” of health care services, including mental health treatment.

“There’s no discussion about it,” he said.

Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].