Pharmacy practice can be rewarding almost anywhere. It can be especially rewarding in idyllic Maine, with its gorgeous natural scenery, fine cities and towns, friendly population, and sophisticated healthcare system. You’ve doubtless invested a lot in your pharmacy education, licensure, and practice. Now, don’t lose it all to Maine Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges relating to your criminal arrest and criminal issues. The Maine Board of Pharmacy warns that its mission is to protect the public against incompetent, dishonest, and dangerous pharmacy practice. Criminal conviction can lead to license suspension or revocation, and loss of your pharmacy employment and practice. When facing Maine Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges related to criminal issues, your best move is to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to preserve and protect your pharmacy license. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available in Portland, South Portland, Lewiston, Bangor, Auburn, Sanford, Buxton, South Paris, Windham, North Berwick, Waterboro, Scarborough, Oakland, or any other Maine location, to help you defend and defeat your disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly qualified pharmacy license defense.
Maine Criminal Arrests
You are not alone if you have criminal issues as a Maine resident. Maine has lower crime rates than other states. But Maine residents still commit plenty of crimes, well over 40,000 crimes every year. Most Maine crimes involve property rather than persons. Yet more than 10,000 crimes against the person happen every year in Maine. Simple assault and intimidation are the most common of those personal crimes. Shoplifting and larceny or theft are the most common Maine property crimes. Thousands of Mainers or Down Easters also commit drunk driving and drug crimes. Count yourself among a lot of other Mainers if you have criminal issues.
Maine Pharmacist Criminal Arrests
Maine pharmacists can face Maine Board of Pharmacy discipline for both pharmacy crimes and non-pharmacy crimes. Pharmacy crimes involve breaking drug prescribing laws, while non-pharmacy crimes are like the theft and drunk driving crimes mentioned above. The Maine Board of Pharmacy makes an online searchable database publicly available, where it reports its dozens of disciplinary actions against Maine pharmacists. Your biggest risk of discipline may well come from criminal issues related to your pharmacy practice. Federal and state prosecutors nationwide convict pharmacists for healthcare fraud, kickback schemes, pill mills, obstructing justice, spreading infectious disease, dispensing violations, and opioid diversion. Don’t go unrepresented or leave your defense in the hands of unqualified local criminal defense counsel. Instead, retain our highly qualified attorneys.
Maine Pharmacist Licensure Authority
The Maine Pharmacy Act creates the Maine Board of Pharmacy to license pharmacists and regulate their practice within the state. The Maine Pharmacy Act authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to both issue licenses and discipline licenses once issued. You must not continue your Maine pharmacy practice if you lose your license to discipline. The Pharmacy Act makes it a Class E crime to practice without a license, punishable by a $1,000 fine for every offense. The Act also authorizes civil penalties of up to $500 for every regulatory violation and authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to obtain a court injunction against violations, subjecting the violator to contempt of court, incarceration, and further fines. Don’t expect to practice pharmacy without your license. Let us help you defend and defeat disciplinary charges related to your criminal issues.
Maine Pharmacist Licensure Requirements
You have indeed invested a great deal in your pharmacy license. The Maine Pharmacy Act requires that you complete your approved pharmacy education, pass the pharmacy licensure examination, complete the required internship hours, and otherwise prove your fitness for licensure to the Board of Pharmacy. Board of Pharmacy rules further authorize the Board to consider any felony criminal convictions when granting or renewing a license. The Maine Pharmacy Act also makes commission of any crime in the course of pharmacy practice a ground for discipline. Your criminal issues could interfere with your ability to retain or renew your license. Let us help you navigate your Maine Board of Pharmacy licensing issues so that you can retain and renew your license.
Maine Pharmacist License Discipline
The Maine Board of Pharmacy has not only the statutory authority to discipline pharmacy licenses related to any violation, including the commission of a crime, but also trained investigators, substantial resources, and a strong commitment to enforcement. The Maine Pharmacy Act authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to impose any disciplinary sanction that it determines when a pharmacist commits one of the specified disciplinary grounds. For the specific disciplinary sanctions, the Pharmacy Act refers to another Maine statute listing license suspension, revocation, probation, limitation, and fines of up to $1,500 per violation. The disciplinary grounds begin with drug or alcohol abuse and mental or physical impairment. But the disciplinary grounds also include unprofessional conduct and violations of professional standards, which may readily implicate criminal misconduct in the course of or related to pharmacy practice. Let us help you defend and defeat any disciplinary charge.
Maine Pharmacist License Discipline for Crime
The Pharmacy Act also includes a specific ground for discipline related to crime. That provision then includes as a disciplinary ground conviction of a crime “committed during the course of duties performed as a licensed pharmacist” as one category. The statute also includes commission of a crime “through the use of the pharmacy in which the pharmacist is employed or that the pharmacist owns or operates….” The statute qualifies, though, the crime must “demonstrate[] unfitness to practice as a pharmacist….” The statute then expressly states the crimes worthy of discipline include “convictions for defrauding the Medicaid program and for illegally distributing prescription drugs….” The Maine Board of Pharmacy has express authority to discipline you for conviction of certain crimes. Let us help you address your disciplinary risk with appropriate disclosures.
Maine Pharmacy Board Disciplinary Discretion
Significantly, the Maine Pharmacy Act doesn’t expressly require the Board of Pharmacy to impose specific discipline for a criminal offense, as acts in some other states do. Instead, the Maine Pharmacy Act gives the Board of Pharmacy discretion to impose a sanction or not, stating only that the Board “may” impose sanctions, not that it must impose sanctions. Our attorneys can turn the Board’s discretion in your favor. Instead of a black-and-white situation, constrained by your conviction, your disciplinary charge remains uncertain as to whether you must suffer any discipline at all. We can, in other words, put together a case in mitigation of any sanction, even if you committed the alleged offense and suffered conviction for it without relief. We may, for instance, put on proof of your good character, your effective pharmacy practice, and your rehabilitation from any issues that your criminal conviction reflects.
Disciplinary Differences Among Specific Crimes
It can matter a lot to your disciplinary outcome as to what specific crime the Maine Board of Pharmacy alleges that you committed. Some crimes are more serious than other crimes. Our attorneys can focus your defense on answering the concerns that the Board of Pharmacy may have for each category of crime, as follows.
License Discipline Effect of Maine Felony Crimes
Maine felony crimes, which Maine classifies as Class A, B, and C crimes, have more serious penalties than Maine misdemeanor crimes, classified as Class D and E crimes. Felony crimes include everything from murder and manslaughter down to aggravated or sexual assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment, robbery, arson, burglary, theft involving valuable items, and drug crimes with specific substances above certain amounts. The Board of Pharmacy must generally address felonies with great caution because of the risk to pharmacy customers of serious injury or substantial financial loss from a dangerous or dishonest pharmacist. The Board must also preserve public confidence in the pharmacy profession, which could warrant license suspension or revocation for endangering felonies. Our approach would be to show that you did not commit the felony, a court overturned it, it did not relate to pharmacy practice, no one suffered injury or loss, and you have rehabilitated your character.
License Discipline Effect of Maine Pharmacy-Related Crimes
The Maine Pharmacy Act specifically authorizes discipline for crimes committed within the pharmacy or using its business. Pharmacy-related crimes would include drug dispensing violations, illegal drug possession, distribution, or manufacturing, identity theft crimes, insurance fraud crimes, and records violations. The Board of Pharmacy would have a serious concern over these crimes because of their impact on the pharmacy and public trust in the pharmacy profession. The Board cannot let pharmacists unlawfully divert and dispense dangerous drugs, when ensuring lawful and safe dispensing of drugs is the Board of Pharmacy’s mission. We may be able to defend your pharmacy-related conviction by showing that the court overturned or expunged the conviction, your violation was unintentional, you quickly stopped and attempted to correct the violation, you did not conceal but instead disclosed the violation, and you have rehabilitated your good character for pharmacy practice.
Differences Between Criminal Case Stages
It can matter a lot whether you only suffered a criminal investigation and arrest but not a criminal charge or conviction, or if you only suffered a criminal charge but not a conviction. Detectives initiate a criminal investigation based on reasonable suspicion. They don’t need evidence. Thus, an investigation means nothing if it does not produce evidence. Likewise, police arrest based on probable cause to believe that the suspect is committing a crime. An arrest does not require evidence. Thus, an arrest means nothing if it does not lead to a charge. Generally, Board of Pharmacy officials will ignore a criminal investigation or arrest that does not lead to criminal charges or conviction. Similarly, a prosecutor only needs a reasonable belief in available evidence of a crime to charge the crime in criminal court. Prosecutors abandon charges for lack of evidence, and courts dismiss charges on the same ground, in many instances. Thus, the Board of Pharmacy should generally disregard your criminal charge if it does not result in a criminal conviction and if it does not turn up evidence that would be grounds on which to discipline you for professional misconduct of another nature. Let us help you make these distinctions with the Board of Pharmacy.
Treatment of Criminal Convictions
We may also be able to show the Board of Pharmacy that your criminal conviction should not result in discipline. Criminal courts sometimes reverse, overturn, or expunge criminal convictions. Executive authorities also pardon criminal convictions or commute criminal sentences. If you obtained relief from your criminal conviction or expect to do so imminently, let us show that ground for disciplinary relief to the Board of Pharmacy. We can also address your conviction in the ways already stated above, showing that it does not relate to pharmacy practice or showing your rehabilitation.
Maine Pharmacist Duty to Report Crime Issues
The Maine Pharmacy Act and Board of Pharmacy rules require annual license renewals using the Board of Pharmacy’s renewal forms. Renewal forms generally require you to both disclose criminal convictions since your last renewal and to authorize criminal history checks. The Board of Pharmacy will, on its own, make routine criminal history checks and may receive notice of a criminal conviction from a court clerk or prosecutor having their own duty to report to the Board. Thus, you cannot and must not attempt to conceal your criminal conviction from the Board of Pharmacy. Instead, let us help you make a timely, accurate, and complete disclosure in a proper context that enables us to pursue your disciplinary defense.
Maine Pharmacist Licensing Procedures
The Maine Board of Pharmacy must afford you constitutional due process when pursuing disciplinary charges against you. We can invoke your protective rights to ensure that you have fair notice and a fair hearing. If you have already lost your board hearing, let us take your appeal and seek civil court review as the state’s administrative procedures allow.
Premier Maine Pharmacist License Defense
Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your best disciplinary outcome. We have helped hundreds of pharmacists and other professionals in Maine and nationwide successfully defend their disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly qualified attorney representation.