Pharmacy practice in Mississippi should have its strong attractions and substantial financial rewards. After all, you made a substantial investment in your pharmacy education, examination, licensure, and employment. Mississippi also has a strong enough economy, large enough population, and strong enough healthcare system to warrant substantial pharmacy practice and employment opportunities. Yet your criminal issues can expose you to the risk of Mississippi Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges. You could lose your pharmacy license because of your criminal arrest, charge, and conviction. Let the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team help protect your pharmacy license against Mississippi Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges relating to your criminal issues. Our attorneys are available in Jackson, Gulfport, Southaven, Biloxi, Hattiesburg, Olive Branch, Tupelo, Meridian, Greenville, Clinton, Pearl, Horn Lake, Oxford, Madison, or any other Mississippi location. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly qualified license defense representation.
Mississippi Pharmacist Criminal Arrests
You are not the only one facing criminal issues in Mississippi. Mississippi has historically had generally lower property and violent crime rates than the national average. Yet those same statistics show all kinds of crimes occurring across the state in significant numbers, from property crimes like shoplifting and theft, to crimes against the person like homicide, assault, and robbery, to crimes against society like drunk driving and drug crimes. Mississippi pharmacists are among those residents committing crimes. See, for example, the federal conviction of a Mississippi pharmacist for a kickback scheme involving federal programs. Pharmacists have particular risks of criminal conviction related to pharmacy practice. See, for example, the convictions of pharmacists elsewhere for federal healthcare fraud, pill mill schemes, obstructing justice, spreading communicable disease, private insurer fraud, illegal drug dispensing, and diverting opioids. Pharmacists also face Mississippi Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges for non-pharmacy crimes. Let us help defend your disciplinary charges related to your criminal issues.
Mississippi Pharmacist Licensure Authority
The Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act regulates pharmacists within the state. The Act’s Section 73-21-83 authorizes the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy to license and regulate the practice of pharmacists in the state. The same provision requires all pharmacists to obtain a Board of Pharmacy license before practicing in the state. The Act’s Section 73-21-103 authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to impose a civil fine of up to $1,000 for each offense of unlicensed pharmacist practice and up to $5,000 for every subsequent offense. Mississippi Statutes Section 97-23-43 further authorizes criminal conviction and incarceration up to one year for a first offense of unlicensed pharmacist practice, two years for a second offense, and five years for a third or subsequent offense. You must not practice as a pharmacist in Mississippi without a valid license. Let us help you defend and defeat disciplinary charges.
Mississippi Pharmacist Licensure Requirements
The Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act also sets forth the qualifications for licensure. The Act’s Section 73-21-85 requires not only that you complete the required pharmacy education, pass the pharmacy exam, and complete the pharmacy internship but also that you prove your good moral character. The same section requires that to ensure good moral character, the applicant must authorize the Board of Pharmacy to complete a criminal history background check. The Act’s Section 73-21-91 requires that you renew your license annually by completing the Board of Pharmacy renewal form. Section 73-21-97 states that the Board of Pharmacy may refuse to grant or renew a license on any of the grounds for which the Board may discipline a license, which would include certain criminal convictions. If you suffer certain criminal convictions, you may not be able to renew your pharmacy license. Get our help invoking Board of Pharmacy procedures to challenge any license renewal denial based on your criminal conviction.
Mississippi Pharmacist License Discipline for Crime
The Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act Section 73-21-97 authorizes the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy to discipline pharmacist licenses on specified grounds. The Mississippi Board of Pharmacy invites anyone to make an online complaint against a pharmacist’s license. The Board of Pharmacy employs and authorizes personnel to investigate and pursue disciplinary charges. Section 73-21-97’s disciplinary grounds expressly include these four different forms of criminal conviction:
- a felony crime;
- a crime of moral turpitude;
- a crime of gross immorality;
- a crime for violating pharmacy or drug laws.
Other disciplinary grounds included in Section 73-21-97 involve pharmacist misconduct that could warrant criminal charges, such as misappropriation of drugs, fraud, and alcohol or drug abuse. Let us help you defend disciplinary charges based on any criminal conviction or criminal act.
Mississippi Pharmacy Board Disciplinary Discretion
Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act Section 73-21-97 makes clear that the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy has the discretion to discipline your license for the above criminal convictions, not that the Board of Pharmacy must impose license discipline for those convictions. While the Board’s discretion may concern you, the Board’s discretion gives our attorneys the chance to argue any defense or mitigating circumstance that the facts support and that may sway the Board in your favor. Factors could include your maturity or immaturity when committing the crime, your clean criminal record and record of discipline other than for the one conviction, your rehabilitation and remedial measures, character witnesses we call on your behalf, and your strong educational and employment records.
Disciplinary Differences Among Specific Crimes
The crime for which you suffer conviction influences your Mississippi Board of Pharmacy disciplinary outcome. Our attorneys may be able to defend you on each of the four crime categories for which the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy may discipline under Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act Section 73-21-97, as follows.
License Discipline Effect of Mississippi Felony Crimes
The Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act Section 73-21-97 authorizes the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy to discipline for felony crimes. Felony crimes can include everything from homicide to aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, false imprisonment, arson, burglary, and larceny or theft involving valuable property. Board of Pharmacy officials share concern over felony crime because of the risk to customer safety and security, and public condemnation of the pharmacy profession. We may be able to show that your conviction was not for a felony, was not for a felony crime that creates a risk of unfit pharmacy practice, or had a court overturn or expunge it or executive pardon it. We may also be able to show your rehabilitation and that the crime was the result of an extraordinary heat-of-passion moment not related to pharmacy practice.
License Discipline Effect of Mississippi Moral Turpitude Crimes
The Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act Section 73-21-97 also authorizes the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy to discipline for crimes of moral turpitude. Crimes of moral turpitude typically involve a degree of dishonesty, like theft, embezzlement, criminal fraud, and criminal conversion. We may be able to show that your conviction was not for a moral turpitude crime, that you were not dishonest or immoral in your conduct, that the court reversed or expunged your conviction or the executive pardoned it, that you otherwise have a good criminal and disciplinary record, and that you rehabilitated your good moral character.
License Discipline Effect of Mississippi Gross Immorality Crimes
The Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act Section 73-21-97 also authorizes the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy to discipline for crimes of gross immorality. A gross immorality crime may include corruption of a minor prostitution or solicitation to prostitution, sex trafficking, public lewdness, indecent exposure, and sexual assault. Some may consider crimes against society such as drunk driving or drug crimes as fitting this category. We may be able to show that your conviction was not for a crime of gross immorality, that the court expunged or reversed the conviction or executive pardoned it, that you rehabilitated your good moral character, that no one suffered any harm from your crime, and that you otherwise have a clean criminal and disciplinary record.
License Discipline Effect of Mississippi Drug Distribution Crimes
The Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act Section 73-21-97 also authorizes the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy to discipline for crime violating pharmacy or drug laws. Drug and pharmacy crimes may include illegal possession, distribution, or manufacture of controlled substances, operating a motor vehicle while impaired, illegal dispensing of controlled substances, insurance fraud, and recordkeeping violations. We may be able to show that your crime fit none of these categories, the court or executive relieved you of the conviction, you rehabilitated your character and fitness including addressing any related addiction or dependency issues, and you otherwise have a clean criminal and disciplinary record.
Differences Between Criminal Case Stages
The Mississippi Board of Pharmacy should also consider the stage that your criminal proceeding reached, when determining whether to pursue disciplinary charges. Let us hold the Board of Pharmacy to its proper burden of proof on any disciplinary charges it pursues related to the following stages of your criminal proceeding.
License Discipline Effect of Mississippi Criminal Investigation
The Mississippi Board of Pharmacy should not in the least consider that police or detectives pursued a criminal investigation against you, if that investigation did not result in criminal arrest, charges, and conviction. The fact of a criminal investigation may trigger a disciplinary investigation, but the criminal investigation itself is of no account, especially when not producing evidence of crime sufficient to support an arrest and charge. Reasonable suspicion is all that the police need to investigate, not reliable evidence.
License Discipline Effect of Mississippi Criminal Arrest
The Mississippi Board of Pharmacy should also not at all consider the fact of your arrest if no criminal charges or conviction resulted. An arrest requires nothing more than probable cause. That no charges or conviction resulted would indicate that your arrest did not lead to evidence sufficient to support that you committed a chargeable crime. We can show that your release indicates that your arrest was in error and warrants that the Board of Pharmacy ignore your arrest.
License Discipline Effect of Mississippi Criminal Charge
The Mississippi Board of Pharmacy should also not at all consider your criminal charge if it does not result in conviction. A prosecutor abandons a criminal charge when the evidence does not support it, just as a court dismisses a criminal charge for lack of evidence at preliminary examination or later on a motion raising constitutional grounds.
License Discipline Effect of Mississippi Criminal Conviction
On the other hand, the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy may properly construe your criminal conviction to prove that you committed the crime. We may nonetheless be able to show your conviction’s expungement, reversal, or pardon, or that your conviction was not for a disqualifying crime, you rehabilitated your character and fitness, and you are not a risk to pharmacy customers or the pharmacy profession.
Mississippi Pharmacist Duty to Report Criminal Issues
Mississippi Pharmacy Practice Act Section 73-21-91’s requirement that you renew your license annually by completing the Board of Pharmacy renewal form effectively requires you to self-report your criminal conviction. The Board of Pharmacy’s renewal form will likely request that you disclose convictions or similar potentially disqualifying events since your last renewal. You will also have to authorize a criminal history background check, which the Board of Pharmacy may perform on its own in any case as part of its routine review of criminal history databases. Concealing your conviction could be credential fraud costing you the pharmacy license. Let us help you confirm and satisfy your reporting requirements, while ensuring that your disclosure doesn’t unduly jeopardize your license.
Mississippi Pharmacist Licensing Procedures
Mississippi Pharmacy Act Section 73-21-99 states the detailed procedures the Board of Pharmacy must follow to discipline your license, if you properly invoke those procedures. Failing to respond to disciplinary charges could result in your default. Our attorneys know how to invoke the Board of Pharmacy’s procedures for an early conciliation conference and, if necessary, for a formal hearing at which to present your exonerating and mitigating evidence and challenge any adverse evidence. If you have already lost your formal hearing, let us take your administrative appeal under Section 73-21-101 and pursue civil court relief as necessary.
Premier Mississippi Pharmacist License Defense
Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for skilled, strategic, and effective license defense, no matter your Mississippi location. We help hundreds of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals in Mississippi and nationwide successfully resolve their disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our premier attorney representation.