Your pharmacist practice in Kansas likely has enormous value to you, especially after the huge investment you made in your pharmacy education and licensure. You have every right to expect your hard-earned rewards of pharmacist practice. Yet the Kansas Board of Pharmacy has the statutory duty to protect customer health and enforce state and federal drug laws. Depending on what they are and how you handle them, your criminal issues could cause you to lose your pharmacist license to Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges. Your best move is to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team. We can help you defend your pharmacist license against Kansas Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges brought based on your criminal issues. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available in Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe, Topeka, Lawrence, Shawnee, Lenexa, Manhattan, Salina, Hutchinson, Leavenworth, Leawood, Garden City, or any other Kansas location. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly qualified license defense representation.
Kansas Pharmacist Criminal Arrests
Kansas pharmacists face the risk of criminal arrest, charge, and conviction like other Kansas residents. Except in a couple of its urban areas, Kansas does not have a particularly high crime rate. Kansas nonetheless has substantial numbers of crimes against the person, like murder, assault, and domestic violence, property crimes like larceny and shoplifting, and public crimes like drunk driving and drug crimes. While Kansas pharmacists may commit any of these general crimes, pharmacists also face a peculiar risk of investigation for practice-related crimes like insurance fraud and drug diversion. See, for example, the convictions of pharmacists nationwide for healthcare program fraud, kickback schemes, pill mills, obstruction of justice, communicable disease outbreaks, private health insurer fraud, drug dispensing law violations, and opioid diversion. The Kansas Board of Pharmacy, having the duty to protect pharmacy customers and the public, thus stands ready with disciplinary charges for both pharmacy crimes and non-pharmacy crimes. The Kansas Board of Pharmacy publishes literally thousands of discipline orders online, where anyone can read the pharmacist’s name, wrongs, and penalties. Don’t doubt the Board of Pharmacy’s resources and commitment. Let us defend your Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges against your criminal issues.
Kansas Pharmacist Licensure Authority
Kansas Pharmacy Act establishes the Kansas Board of Pharmacy to license and regulate pharmacist practice in the state. The Act’s Section 65-1631 authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to issue pharmacist licenses while prohibiting pharmacist practice in the state without a license. You must maintain your valid Kansas Board of Pharmacy license to continue your pharmacist practice in the state. Kansas Pharmacy Act Section 65-1658 authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to impose a civil fine of up to $5,000 for each violation of the Act including unlicensed practice. Under Kansas Pharmacy Act Section 65-1627a, the Board of Pharmacy may obtain a civil injunction against your unlicensed practice, enforceable with contempt sanctions including fines and jail. Don’t risk Kansas pharmacist practice without your license. Let us help you preserve and protect your license.
Kansas Pharmacist Licensure Requirements
Kansas Pharmacy Practice Act Section 65-1631 states that the qualifications for licensure include a pharmacy degree from an accredited program, passage of the pharmacy examination, and completion of a minimum of one year of experience under supervision. Yet Section 65-1631 also expressly states that the Kansas Board of Pharmacy “shall take into consideration any felony conviction of such individual,” adding that “such conviction shall not automatically operate as a bar to licensure.” Pharmacy Practice Act Section 65-1632 requires license renewal every two years, while expressly authorizing the Board of Pharmacy to deny renewal on any grounds for discipline. Thus, any condition that arises during the course of your pharmacist practice can result in loss of your license at the next renewal, if not by disciplinary charges. Your renewal application form will generally require you to disclose potentially disqualifying events in the interim, such as a criminal conviction. Let us help you challenge any license denial based on your criminal issues.
Kansas Pharmacist License Discipline for Crime
The Kansas Board of Pharmacy has the state legislature’s express authority to discipline pharmacist licenses. Kansas Pharmacy Practice Act Section 65-1627 authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to discipline your license on any of the listed grounds. Section 65-1627 lists literally dozens of different grounds for your license discipline. Your criminal conviction is among the first few grounds Section 65-1627 lists. The statute lists these three different types of convictions as potentially disqualifying your licensure:
- misdemeanor crimes of moral turpitude;
- misdemeanor crimes of gross immorality; and
- felony crimes.
While any of these convictions can warrant discipline up to license suspension or revocation, Section 65-1627 further imposes the condition that the Board of Pharmacy must permit the accused pharmacist to show that the pharmacist “has been sufficiently rehabilitated to warrant the public trust.” You’ll have a chance to show that although you committed a crime within one of the above three categories, your character and fitness no longer create a practice risk, since you completed your rehabilitation. Let us help you make that showing to preserve and protect your license.
Kansas Pharmacy Board Disciplinary Discretion
Importantly, Kansas Pharmacy Act Section 65-1627 gives the Kansas Board of Pharmacy discretion to either discipline or not discipline for one of the above crimes. Section 1627 states only that the Board of Pharmacy “may deny an application or renewal, limit, condition, revoke, suspend or place in a probationary status the license of any pharmacist” for one of the specified crimes, not that the Board of Pharmacy must impose discipline. You may be concerned about the Board of Pharmacy’s discretion. But that discretion is exactly what gives our attorneys the opportunity to advocate effectively on your behalf using any evidence and arguments that may justly influence the Board, as further explained below.
Disciplinary Differences Among Specific Crimes
You should expect the Kansas Board of Pharmacy to focus its disciplinary proceedings on the crime for which you suffer conviction. Our attorneys may adjust the strategic approach and content of your defense presentation, based on the above three crime categories for which the Kansas Board of Pharmacy may discipline under Kansas Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-20, as the following discussion indicates.
License Discipline Effect of Kansas Moral Turpitude Crimes
Kansas Pharmacy Act Section 65-1627 first authorizes discipline for misdemeanor crimes of moral turpitude. Crimes of moral turpitude typically refer to crimes involving dishonesty or similar bad character. Crimes of dishonesty would include any theft crimes such as criminal conversion, embezzlement, burglary, larceny, or robbery. Crimes of dishonesty could also include insurance fraud or crimes relating to falsification of records. Crimes of moral turpitude may also include crimes that deliberately disregard the safety and welfare of others, like assault and domestic violence. We may be able to defend your disciplinary charges by showing that your conviction was not for a crime of moral turpitude, the court expunged or overturned your conviction or the executive pardoned it, your conviction bore no relationship to pharmacist practice, you harmed no one, you rehabilitated your character, and you otherwise have a clean criminal and disciplinary record.
License Discipline Effect of Gross Immorality Crimes
Kansas Pharmacy Act Section 65-1627 next authorizes discipline for misdemeanor crimes of gross immorality. Crimes of gross immorality generally reflect a base or vile character, outside the bounds of decency in a civil society. Gross immorality crimes may include public lewdness, indecent exposure, sexual assault, sex trafficking, sexual or physical abuse of a minor, child pornography, prostitution, and solicitation to prostitution. We may be able to defend your conviction on the same grounds as just stated above for crimes of moral turpitude.
License Discipline Effect of Kansas Felony Crimes
Kansas Pharmacy Act Section 65-1627 next authorizes discipline for felony crimes. Felony crimes include crimes against the person, like murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, and false imprisonment. Felonies can also include property crimes like arson, burglary, and theft involving property with higher values. Felonies can also include crimes against the public, such as third offense drunk driving, drunk driving causing serious injury or death, and drug crimes involving certain substances in larger amounts. Felony crime can indicate that you are a safety and security risk around pharmacy customers, personnel, and interests. Felony crimes can also lead to public condemnation of the pharmacy profession. We may be able to show that your crime was not a felony, the court reversed or expunged it, the governor pardoned it, you completed your sentence and rehabilitated your character, or you reacted in a heat of passion to an extraordinary event that won’t repeat or occur in your pharmacist practice.
Differences Between Criminal Case Stages
The Kansas Board of Pharmacy may also decide whether to pursue disciplinary charges based on the stage that your criminal proceeding has reached. We can hold the Board of Pharmacy to its burden of proof on disciplinary charges so that it does not use your criminal investigation, arrest, or charge as evidence of wrongdoing, as follows.
License Discipline Effect of Kansas Criminal Investigation
Your criminal investigation should mean nothing to your Kansas Board of Pharmacy disciplinary proceeding, other than for any evidence of wrongdoing the investigation may turn up, if it did not result in a criminal conviction. Police investigate crimes based on reasonable suspicion. Your criminal investigation may have turned up no evidence of your wrongdoing whatsoever if the police did not seek or the prosecutor did not issue criminal charges.
License Discipline Effect of Kansas Criminal Arrest
Your criminal arrest should also mean nothing to the Kansas Board of Pharmacy, other than for any evidence of wrongdoing the arrest reveals, if criminal charges and conviction did not follow the arrest. Police arrest based on probable cause to believe you committed a crime, not on admissible evidence of a crime.
License Discipline Effect of Kansas Criminal Charge
Your criminal charge should also mean nothing to the Kansas Board of Pharmacy if the charge did not result in a conviction. The prosecutor may have abandoned your charge for lack of evidence. The court may alternatively have dismissed your charge after the preliminary hearing on the same grounds or may have dismissed the charge on defense motion for a constitutional violation.
License Discipline Effect of Kansas Criminal Conviction
Your criminal conviction by the Kansas Board of Pharmacy may properly be taken as proving that you committed the crime. We may, though, be able to show that the court overturned or expunged the conviction, the governor pardoned you of the conviction, your conviction was not a disqualifying crime, you completed your sentence and are rehabilitated, you have a clean disciplinary record, you have a strong academic and employment record, and you are safe, competent, and fit for pharmacist practice.
Kansas Pharmacist’s Duty to Report Crime Issues
The Kansas Board of Pharmacy ensures, through its license application and renewal forms, that you must report and disclose your criminal conviction. You cannot avoid disclosing your criminal conviction without risking credential fraud disciplinary charges. You could lose your license or ability to renew your license for failing to disclose a conviction when the conviction itself might not result in any discipline. Let us help you determine your duty to report your conviction and help you make that report in an accurate manner that helps us defend any related disciplinary charges.
Kansas Pharmacist Licensing Procedures
Kansas Pharmacy Practice Act Section 65-1627f expressly requires the Board of Pharmacy to comply with the Kansas Administrative Procedure Act when pursuing disciplinary charges. Our attorneys can invoke your procedural protections for a formal hearing on your disciplinary charges. We can also take your administrative appeal under the Procedure Act if you have already lost your hearing. Civil court relief may also be available.
Premier Kansas Pharmacist License Defense
Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your best outcome with the Kansas Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges. We help hundreds of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals in Kansas and nationwide successfully defend their disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced attorney representation.