Pharmacy practice in Arkansas can definitely be a rewarding profession, given the state’s good-sized metropolitan areas, friendly population, stable economy, and sophisticated healthcare. Your criminal issues, though, can throw a wrench in your professional practice, resulting in Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges. You could lose your pharmacy license to suspension or revocation, and lose your pharmacy practice and employment along with it. Don’t ignore or minimize your professional risks. Instead, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your skilled and experienced license defense. We are available in Little Rock, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Springdale, Jonesboro, Rogers, Conway, Bentonville, Pine Bluff, Hot Springs, or any other Arkansas location to preserve and protect your Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy license. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for premier and effective license defense representation.
Arkansas Pharmacist Criminal Arrests
As attractive a place as Arkansas is to live and practice pharmacy, Arkansas has a relatively high crime rate, especially in its larger cities. FBI statistics, though, show crimes of all kinds across the state. Property crimes like theft and retail fraud or shoplifting predominate, but crimes against the person like assault and more serious violent crimes also occur across the state, as do drug and drunk driving crimes. Arkansas has also been the location of a string of pharmacy crimes, especially burglaries to steal controlled substances for distribution. Unfortunately, pharmacists get involved in some of that crime. See, for example, the federal conviction of one Arkansas pharmacist for a pill scheme. Other reports show pharmacists responsible for such pharmacy-related crimes as obstruction of justice, causing disease outbreaks, government agency and private insurer fraud, drug distribution, and diverting opioid prescriptions. Pharmacists also face conviction for crimes that the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy may construe as creating practice risks warranting license discipline. Let us help you with your Arkansas pharmacy license defense.
Arkansas Pharmacist Licensure Authority
You must deal with the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy related to your criminal issues, or risk losing your pharmacy license due to discipline. Section 17-92-801 of the Arkansas Pharmacy Practice Act gives the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy the authority to license pharmacists for practice in the state. The Act’s Section 17-92-301 requires anyone intending to practice pharmacy in Arkansas to first obtain an Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy license. The following Sections, 17-92-302 and 303, make it a criminal misdemeanor to practice pharmacy without a license or to use a pharmacist’s title without a license, punishable by up to a $100 fine for a first offense and up to thirty days imprisonment for each subsequent offense, with each day a separate offense. Don’t risk unlicensed practice. Let us help you defend and defeat license disciplinary charges relating to your criminal issues.
Arkansas Pharmacist Licensure Requirements
Arkansas Pharmacy Practice Act Sections 17-92-305, 306, and 307 state the general education, examination, and internship requirements for pharmacist licensure. The Act’s Section 17-92-311 further permits the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy to deny a license, refuse to renew a license, or discipline a license for any of the listed grounds, including certain criminal convictions. Your criminal issues can unquestionably threaten your Arkansas pharmacy license. Get our help in timely reporting your issues, accurately disclosing their status, and defending and defeating any related license disciplinary charges.
Arkansas Pharmacist License Discipline
The Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy has the express power under Arkansas Pharmacy Act Section 17-92-311 to initiate a license disciplinary proceeding when learning of your criminal conviction. Section 17-92-311 authorizes discipline for any one of four different types of criminal conviction, either (1) a felony listed in Section 17-3-102, (2) any crime involving gross immorality, (3) any crime related to pharmacy practice, or (4) any crime violating pharmacy or drug laws. Beware of the risk to your Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy license of any criminal conviction, given the number and breadth of these provisions authorizing discipline. Let our skilled and experienced attorneys help you defend and defeat your disciplinary charges relating to your criminal issues.
Arkansas Pharmacy Board Disciplinary Discretion
Keep in mind that your pharmacy license discipline under Arkansas Pharmacy Act Section 17-92-311 is discretionary with the State Board of Pharmacy. While some pharmacy acts mandate discipline for criminal convictions, Section 17-92-311 instead provides only that the State Board may revoke or suspend a license, not that it must do so, for one of the above qualifying criminal convictions. While State Board rules do not disclose the discretionary factors, the State Board may consider things like your age and maturity when committing the offense, how long ago the offense occurred, whether you completed all associated sentence terms, whether you completed other rehabilitation, who speaks on your behalf, and your education, training, and employment history. We can help you identify, gather, and present exonerating and mitigating evidence around these and other factors.
Disciplinary Differences Among Specific Crimes
The specific crime for which you suffer conviction may be most important to your disciplinary outcome. Consider the following example crimes in each of the four crime categories for which the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy may discipline. Also, consider how we may be able to defend your State Board disciplinary charges based on each statutory category.
License Discipline Effect of Arkansas Felony Crimes
Arkansas Pharmacy Act Section 17-92-311 first authorizes license discipline for a felony crime listed in Section 17-3-102. Section 17-3-102 lists well over three dozen different felony crimes from capital murder through manslaughter, kidnapping, and robbery down to incest, sexual assault, burglary, and stalking. Felony crimes can pose safety and security risks to pharmacy customers, personnel, and interests. Felony crimes can also subject the pharmacy profession to public condemnation and mistrust. As serious as these crimes can be, we may be able to show the court set aside, expunged, or overturned your conviction, the executive pardoned you, your crime was in an extraordinary and excusable heat of passion not likely to occur related to pharmacy practice, or time and remedial measures have rehabilitated your character.
License Discipline Effect of Arkansas Gross Immorality Crimes
Arkansas Pharmacy Act Section 17-92-311 next authorizes license discipline for a crime involving gross immorality. Crimes of gross immorality could include corruption of a minor, solicitation to prostitution, sexual assault, indecent exposure, or public lewdness. We may be able to show that your crime does not qualify as gross immorality, the court or executive relieved you of the conviction, your crime presented no risk to pharmacy customers, or you rehabilitated your good moral character.
License Discipline Effect of Arkansas Practice-Related Crimes
Arkansas Pharmacy Act Section 17-92-311 next authorizes license discipline for a crime related to pharmacy practice. Crimes related to pharmacy practice may include communication of disease, drug diversion, insurance fraud, and identity theft. Crimes implicating your impairment from substance abuse or dependency, such as drug possession, drunk driving, and drunk and disorderly conduct, could also be crimes related to practice. We may be able to defend disciplinary charges based on practice-related crimes by showing that your crime did not relate to practice, the court or executive relieved you of the conviction, no customer or other person suffered any financial or other harm or risk from the crime, or you rehabilitated your fitness for practice.
License Discipline Effect of Arkansas Pharmacy or Drug Crimes
Arkansas Pharmacy Act Section 17-92-311 next authorizes license discipline for a crime involving pharmacy or drug laws. These crimes may be mostly drug-related crimes involving unlawful possession, distribution, and manufacture but may also include insurance fraud and government program fraud related to prescription reimbursement. We may be able to show in defense that your crime was not of a drug or pharmacy law, that the court or executive relieved you of the crime, you completed your sentence and rehabilitated your practice fitness, and you have no dependency, addiction, or other issue making you a practice risk.
Differences Between Criminal Case Stages
The Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy may also consider the stage your criminal proceeding reached, especially if it stopped short of a criminal conviction. We can advocate in your defense at each stage, as follows.
License Discipline Effect of Arkansas Criminal Investigation
The Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy should give virtually no consideration to your criminal investigation without an arrest, charge, or conviction. While your criminal investigation may lead to a complaint against your license, we may be able to show the State Board in response to the disciplinary charge that your criminal investigation led to nothing and that you were not engaged in any disciplinary offense. Police don’t need any grounds other than reasonable suspicion to investigate. Their refusal to proceed with your arrest would tend to indicate the absence of any probable cause.
License Discipline Effect of Arkansas Criminal Arrest
The Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy should give virtually no consideration to your criminal arrest without charge or conviction. While your arrest may lead to a complaint against your license, we may be able to show that your arrest was mistaken, your actions were innocent, and that you were not engaged in any disciplinary offense. Police need only probable cause, not admissible evidence, for an arrest. Their refusal to proceed with seeking criminal charges indicates the error of your arrest.
License Discipline Effect of Arkansas Criminal Charge
The Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy should likewise give virtually no weight to your criminal charge without a conviction. Prosecutors charge based on a reasonable belief that they have evidence to convict, but may quickly learn at a preliminary examination or after further investigation that they do not have that evidence. They may accordingly abandon the charge, or the court may dismiss the charge at the preliminary hearing or by motion later for a constitutional violation. We can answer any State Board charge that the criminal charge may have hastened, to present your exonerating evidence, while showing State Board officials that the prosecution abandoned or the court dismissed the criminal charge.
License Discipline Effect of an Arkansas Criminal Conviction
The Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy may construe your criminal conviction as presumptively establishing that you committed the crime. But we may still be able to show that the court or executive relieved you of the conviction, that the conviction was not for a disciplinable criminal offense, or that you have rehabilitated your character and fitness for pharmacy practice since the offense.
Arkansas Pharmacist’s Duty to Report Criminal Issues
Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy administrative rules and procedures for license applications and renewals make clear your duty to disclose and report your prior criminal convictions. Thus, if you suffer a criminal conviction between your initial licensure and your next license renewal, you will very likely have to disclose that conviction in response to the State Board’s renewal forms and procedures, including their criminal background history checks. Whether you must report your criminal conviction shortly after it happens, before your license renewal application, may depend on the type of conviction and other circumstances. Let us help you determine your reporting requirement and comply with that requirement so that you do not face credential fraud disciplinary charges.
Arkansas Pharmacist Licensing Procedures
You have a right to constitutional due process when facing the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges. Arkansas Pharmacy Practice Act Section 17-92-313 states the procedures that the State Board of Pharmacy must follow to impose discipline on any licensee. Those procedures include fair notice and a fair hearing before an impartial official. Let us invoke your hearing procedures on your behalf. Let us take your appeal and seek civil court relief if you have already lost your disciplinary hearing.
Premier Arkansas Pharmacist License Defense
If you face Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges relating to your criminal issues, promptly retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your skilled and experienced license defense. We have helped hundreds of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals in Arkansas and nationwide successfully resolve their disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for highly qualified and effective attorney representation.