Practicing pharmacy in Montana must be among the most rewarding of healthcare careers. Not only is Montana’s mountain scenery perfect for recreation and inspiration, but the state also has special cities and towns, a strong healthcare system, and a stable and friendly population. No one handed your pharmacy practice to you. You invested a great deal in your pharmacy education and licensure in order to reap those rewards. To enjoy those ample and well-earned rewards, though, you must maintain your Montana Board of Pharmacy license. And your criminal issues, whatever they may be, present a risk of license discipline. You could lose your Montana Board of Pharmacy license to suspension or revocation because of your criminal issues, unless you handle those issues properly. Your single best move to preserve and protect your pharmacy license is to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team. Our highly qualified attorneys are available in Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Butte, Silver Bow, Helena, Kalispell, Belgrade, Anaconda, Helena Valley, Havre, Whitefish, Livingston, or any other Montana location to help you defend and defeat your disciplinary charges related to your criminal issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced attorney defense.
Montana Criminal Arrests
Montana residents commit crimes like residents in other states. In fact, Montana residents commit violent crimes at a somewhat higher rate than the national average. Montana residents commit around 440 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. Montana residents commit fewer property crimes, at around 1,800 per 100,000 residents, than the national average. Whatever the crime distribution and comparative figures may be, Montana residents commit lots of crimes, over 4,000 violent crimes and around 20,000 property crimes annually, despite Montana’s relatively small population. Assault, theft, retail fraud or shoplifting, drug crimes, and drunk driving are among the most common crimes. You are not alone in facing criminal issues in Montana.
Montana Pharmacist Criminal Arrests
Unfortunately, Montana pharmacists also commit crimes related to pharmacy practice. One Montana pharmacist was recently convicted in federal court for dispensing drugs unlawfully, causing a death. Another Montana pharmacist was recently convicted in federal court for unlawfully dispensing opioids to himself and a friend, using forged prescriptions. The big criminal risk for many pharmacists is their own dispensing practice. Prosecutors nationwide charge and convict pharmacists for insurance fraud, kickbacks, pill mills, obstructing justice, infectious disease spread, dispensing crimes, and opioid diversion. The Montana Board of Pharmacy monitors court filings and public reports for evidence of criminal convictions of its licensed pharmacists, which court clerks and prosecutors may also report to the Board. The Board of Pharmacy also publishes disciplinary action reports. Retain our highly qualified attorneys to help you defend your disciplinary charges related to criminal issues.
Montana Pharmacist Licensure Authority
The Montana Uniform Professional Licensing and Regulation Procedures authorize the Montana Board of Pharmacy to license and regulate pharmacists for practice in the state. Another Montana statute from the state’s food and drug laws provides that no one may dispense pharmaceuticals without a proper Board of Pharmacy license. The Montana Uniform Professional Licensing Procedures authorize the Board of Pharmacy to impose sanctions for violations of the state’s licensing laws, including a fine of up to $1,000 for each violation. The same statute authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to obtain a court injunction against violations, enforceable by contempt sanctions, including fines and incarceration. You need your license to practice pharmacy in Montana. Let us help you defend your license against disciplinary charges.
Montana Pharmacist Licensure Requirements
Montana’s uniform professional licensing laws authorize the Montana Board of Pharmacy to license only those pharmacists who prove that they have met the state’s requirements. Those licensure requirements include graduation from an approved pharmacy program, passage of the pharmacy licensing exam, completion of 1,500 hours of an approved pharmacy internship, and completion to the Board of Pharmacy’s satisfaction of the Board’s application form. The application form includes your certification that you have disclosed all criminal proceedings initiated against you. The Board of Pharmacy will also do a criminal history background check that you must authorize. Let us help if you face licensing issues or renewal issues related to your criminal arrest, charge, or conviction.
Montana Pharmacist License Discipline
The Montana Uniform Professional Licensing and Regulation Procedures authorize the Board of Pharmacy to suspend, revoke, or otherwise discipline the license of any pharmacist who violates the licensing laws and standards. The Board of Pharmacy takes its disciplinary authority seriously, maintaining investigators and other disciplinary staff members, offices, and other resources committed to monitoring pharmacist compliance. The Montana Uniform Professional Licensing Procedures authorize the Montana Board of Pharmacy to define the grounds for imposing disciplinary sanctions. The Board of Pharmacy has a long list of disciplinary grounds, from credential fraud to habitual intemperance, violation of dispensing laws, and consumer fraud. The disciplinary grounds also include certain criminal convictions. Let us help defend your disciplinary charges, no matter the grounds for our discipline.
Montana Pharmacist License Discipline for Crime
The Montana Board of Pharmacy defines two classes of crimes as unprofessional conduct warranting discipline up to license suspension or revocation. The first disciplinary ground involves a conviction, whether of a felony or misdemeanor, involving moral turpitude. The second disciplinary ground involves conviction of an offense involving a federal or state drug possession, distribution, or use crime. These are the two categories or classes of crimes for which the Montana Board of Pharmacy may discipline your license. Other disciplinary grounds, such as a prohibition on fraudulent and deceptive practices, could extend to other crimes. If you face disciplinary charges over your criminal issues, get our help defending those charges.
Montana Pharmacy Board Disciplinary Discretion
Fortunately, the Montana Board of Pharmacy’s rule on disciplinary grounds does not mandate discipline for any specific criminal conviction. Nor does the Montana statute authorizing Board of Pharmacy disciplinary sanctions require that the Board discipline on any specific grounds. Instead, the statute only states that the Board of Pharmacy “may” discipline, not that it must discipline. The Board of Pharmacy’s discretion to impose or not impose disciplinary sanctions gives us the room to argue in mitigation of any sanction, even if you in fact committed a disciplinary crime. We may, for instance, be able to show that although you committed the alleged crime, your crime did not relate to pharmacy practice, did not prove you to be a danger to customers, and did not cause any substantial injury or loss. We may further be able to show your good character, criminal and disciplinary records, and your rehabilitation from the crime.
Disciplinary Differences Among Specific Crimes
Your disciplinary outcome may indeed depend on our effective advocacy, distinguishing your specific crime from the more serious crimes in the above disciplinary categories for which the Montana Board of Pharmacy would ordinarily impose a sanction. Every crime differs in its peculiar circumstances. The following subsections address each class of crime for which the Board of Pharmacy might discipline you, and how we might approach its defense for your best disciplinary outcome.
License Discipline Effect of Montana Moral Turpitude Crimes
The first class of crimes for which the Montana Board of Pharmacy authorizes discipline is crimes involving moral turpitude. Moral turpitude crimes are typically crimes involving dishonesty or corruption. Theft, identity theft, shoplifting, embezzlement, criminal fraud, lewdness, exploitation of minors, and prostitution or solicitation to prostitution are examples of moral turpitude crimes. The Montana Board of Pharmacy would concern itself with moral turpitude crimes because of the risk that pharmacy customers, owners, and suppliers face from a pharmacist’s dishonesty or corruption. A pharmacist might, for instance, steal a customer’s account numbers, identity, and funds, falsify prescriptions to divert drugs, and submit fraudulent insurance claims, all acts of dishonesty and corruption. We may be able to defend these types of crimes by showing that the court overturned or expunged your conviction, your rehabilitation and restitution of any losses, and your other good character.
License Discipline Effect of Montana Drug Crimes
The other class of crimes for which the Montana Board of Pharmacy authorizes discipline is crimes violating federal or state drug possession, distribution, or use laws. These crimes could include unlawfully diverting drugs for personal use or use by others, using forged prescriptions to divert drugs, and personal use or distribution of illegal non-prescription drugs. The Montana Board of Pharmacy would concern itself with drug crimes because of the ready access pharmacists have to drugs and the ready means by which they could manipulate the dispensing system to illegally divert drugs. Drug crime goes to the core of the Board of Pharmacy’s regulatory duty to ensure safe and proper storage and dispensing of drugs by pharmacists, for customer safety and public trust in the pharmacy profession. We may be able to defend your drug crime conviction by showing that the court overturned or expunged it, your crime was singular, personal, and related to exigent circumstances rather than continuous, systematic, and deliberately deceptive, you have rehabilitated your good character, and you otherwise have an outstanding record of service to the profession.
Differences Between Criminal Case Stages
If you only suffered criminal investigation, arrest, or charge but not criminal conviction, we may be able to defend your Montana Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges by distinguishing those criminal case stages. Board of Pharmacy officials may properly construe your criminal conviction as presumptive evidence that you committed the charged crime. Conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. But on the other hand, detectives need only articulable suspicion, not admissible evidence, to investigate a suspect. Police need only probable cause, not admissible evidence, to arrest a criminal suspect whom they believe is committing a crime. And prosecutors need only reasonably believe that admissible evidence is available to charge a crime. Prosecutors abandon charges, and courts dismiss charges for lack of evidence. Let us distinguish your criminal issues from the presumptive effect of an actual criminal conviction.
Treatment of Criminal Convictions
Even if you did suffer a criminal conviction, our attorneys may be able to prove to the Montana Board of Pharmacy that your criminal conviction does not warrant or justify discipline. You may, for instance, have moved in the criminal court for post-conviction relief, which the criminal court may have granted. You may alternatively have appealed your conviction and obtained a reversal. The criminal court may alternatively have expunged your conviction, or the governor or other executive authority may have pardoned you or commuted your sentence. Even your completion of your criminal sentence and the passage of time may be sufficient to avoid discipline.
Montana Pharmacist Duty to Report Crime Issues
The Montana Board of Pharmacy requires that you complete its license renewal process annually, certifying that you are still in active practice and qualified for licensure. The Board’s renewal process likely requires that you disclose your criminal issues, depending on the nature and status of those issues. Do not attempt to conceal your criminal issues or to misrepresent their nature or status. Doing so may be credential fraud for which the Board may discipline you, even if it would not have disciplined you for the criminal issues themselves. Get our help determining your disclosure duty and fulfilling that duty with accurate and complete disclosures, with the context appropriate to your disciplinary defense.
Montana Pharmacist Licensing Procedures
Our attorneys can invoke the appropriate licensing procedures to advocate as we indicate above. The Montana Board of Pharmacy must provide fair notice and a fair hearing procedure before an impartial decision maker to satisfy due process. We can also take your appeal if you have already lost your board hearing and seek civil court review, as administrative procedures allow.
Premier Montana Pharmacist License Defense
Your best move is to retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to address your criminal issues before the Montana Board of Pharmacy. Our attorneys help hundreds of pharmacists and other professionals in Montana and nationwide successfully defend disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced representation.