Practice as a pharmacist in beautiful New Mexico can not only have great attractions but also substantial financial rewards. Of course, you made an enormous investment in your pharmacy education, examination, and licensure to earn, deserve, and justly expect those rewards of a thriving pharmacy practice. Yet the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy warns that it stands ready to discipline for violations of its pharmacist standards to protect customer health and enforce state and federal drug laws. Your criminal issues, whatever they may be, could cause you to lose your pharmacy license due to Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges. Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team to preserve and protect your pharmacy license against New Mexico Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges arising out of your criminal issues. Our highly qualified attorneys are available to represent you in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Roswell, Farmington, Hobbs, Clovis, South Valley, Carlsbad, Alamogordo, Gallup, or any other New Mexico location. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our strategic and effective pharmacy license defense representation.
New Mexico Pharmacist Criminal Arrests
If you face criminal arrest, charge, and conviction in New Mexico, you are certainly not alone. New Mexico has significantly higher property and violent crime rates than the national average, indeed double the violent crime rate and half again the property crime rate. Property crimes like retail fraud or shoplifting and theft, crimes against the person like homicides and assaults, and crimes against the public like drunk driving and drug crimes occur across the state but especially in New Mexico’s urban areas. New Mexico pharmacists have no immunity to crime charges but are instead among those committing crimes. Indeed, New Mexico pharmacists can face Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges for both pharmacy crimes involving violations of the drug prescribing laws and non-pharmacy crimes like theft and drunk driving. The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy publishes its dozens of discipline orders online, detailing the pharmacist’s specific wrongs and penalties for those wrongs. Pharmacists have particular risks of criminal conviction related to pharmacy practice. See, for example, the convictions of pharmacists elsewhere for healthcare fraud, federal kickback schemes, pill mills, obstructing justice, communicable infectious disease, health insurer fraud, drug dispensing violations, and diversion of opioids. Don’t risk discipline unnecessarily. Let us help defend the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges related to your criminal issues.
New Mexico Pharmacist Licensure Authority
New Mexico Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-4 establishes the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy to license and regulate pharmacist practice in the state. The Act’s Section 61-11-14 authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to issue pharmacist licenses while prohibiting pharmacist practice in the state without a license. You must maintain your valid New Mexico Board of Pharmacy license to continue your pharmacist practice in the state. New Mexico Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-24 makes it a criminal misdemeanor to practice without a valid license, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Don’t risk New Mexico pharmacist practice without your license. Let us help you preserve and protect your license.
New Mexico Pharmacist Licensure Requirements
New Mexico Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-9 states the qualifications for licensure. Importantly, you must not only earn your pharmacy degree from an accredited program, pass the pharmacy examination, and complete at least one year of experience under supervision to qualify for your New Mexico license. You must also prove and maintain your good moral character, which your criminal conviction can clearly implicate. Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-20 authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to deny or refuse to renew a license on any ground for which the Board may discipline a licensee, including criminal conviction. You know how hard it was to qualify for your pharmacist license and the time and money you invested. Don’t unnecessarily risk that investment. Let us help you defend your New Mexico Board of Pharmacy disciplinary charges related to your criminal issues.
New Mexico Pharmacist License Discipline for Crime
The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy not only has the authority to issue licenses but also to discipline them. New Mexico Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-20 authorizes the Board of Pharmacy to suspend or revoke your license if you committed misconduct in one of the listed forms. The Act’s Section 61-11-20 also lists the specific disciplinary grounds on which the Board of Pharmacy may suspend or revoke your license. Section 61-11-20 of the New Mexico Pharmacy Act includes three types of conviction as grounds for discipline or nonrenewal, while a separate New Mexico employment statute Section 28-2-4 adds a fourth type of conviction. We can defend you against disciplinary charges for any of the listed crimes. The four types of conviction for which the Board of Pharmacy may discipline under Sections 28-2-4 and 61-11-20 include:
- felony convictions;
- convictions related to pharmacist practice;
- convictions for violation of federal controlled substances laws, food and drug laws, or laws on drug dispensing records; and
- convictions for violation of the state Controlled Substances Act, Drug Product Selection Act, Imitation Controlled Substances Act, Pharmacy Act, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act, or Drug Precursor Act.
New Mexico Pharmacy Board Disciplinary Discretion
New Mexico Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-20 makes the decision whether to discipline discretionary with the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy. Just because you suffer a criminal conviction doesn’t mean that you must suffer pharmacist license discipline. We can therefore argue any legal or equitable ground on which to relieve you of discipline, including things like your younger age and immaturity when committing the wrong, your clean criminal record and disciplinary record other than the one wrong, your rehabilitation, your strong academic and employment record, and your character witnesses whom we call on your behalf.
Disciplinary Differences Among Specific Crimes
The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy will focus on the crime for which you suffer conviction. Our attorneys are ready to defend you on each of the above three crime categories for which the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy may discipline under New Mexico Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-20, as follows.
License Discipline Effect of New Mexico Felony Crimes
The Act’s Section 61-11-20 lists felony conviction as a ground on which the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy may discipline your pharmacist license. Felony crimes can range from homicides like murder and manslaughter down to aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and arson. Felonies can also include burglary and theft involving property with greater value, and drug crimes involving certain substances in larger amounts. The risk the Board of Pharmacy addresses with felonies is your safety and security around pharmacy customers, personnel, and interests, and public condemnation of the pharmacy profession over practitioners with felonies. We may be able to show that you suffered no felony conviction, the court overturned or expunged it, or the executive pardoned it, you rehabilitated your character, or the crime involved a heat-of-passion moment that won’t repeat, especially within pharmacist practice.
License Discipline Effect of New Mexico Practice-Related Crimes
New Mexico employment statute Section 28-2-4 adds conviction for pharmacist practice related crimes as a ground for discipline. These crimes would include drug dispensing, possession, distribution, and manufacturing crimes and crimes for insurance fraud or records violations. We may be able to defend these charges by showing your remedial treatment for any addiction issues, your rehabilitation, that the crime did not relate to pharmacist practice, and that you otherwise have a clean criminal and disciplinary record.
License Discipline Effect of Federal Drug Crimes
The Act’s Section 61-11-20 also lists federal conviction for violation of controlled substances laws, food and drug laws, or law on drug dispensing records, as a ground on which the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy may discipline your pharmacist license. We may be able to show that the court or executive relieved you of your federal conviction, your conviction involved a technical interpretation of ambiguous regulations, you relied on authoritative if erroneous advice, your actions caused no harm or loss, you rehabilitated your fitness for pharmacist practice, and your continued practice creates no risk.
License Discipline Effect of New Mexico Drug Crimes
The Act’s Section 61-11-20 lists New Mexico conviction for violation of the state’s Controlled Substances Act, Drug Product Selection Act, Imitation Controlled Substances Act, Pharmacy Act, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act, or Drug Precursor Act, as a ground on which the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy may discipline your pharmacist license. We may be able to show that your state conviction was not a felony, a court or executive relieved you of it, your state conviction involved interpreting ambiguous state laws, you reasonably relied on authoritative, if erroneous, advice, you completed your rehabilitation, and other than this matter, you have a clean criminal and disciplinary record.
Differences Between Criminal Case Stages
The stage that your criminal proceeding reached also matters when the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy determines whether to pursue disciplinary charges. The Board of Pharmacy has the burden of proof on those charges and can only use a criminal conviction, not your criminal investigation, arrest, or charge, as evidence in the disciplinary proceeding, as follows.
License Discipline Effect of New Mexico Criminal Investigation
The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy must not consider the fact of a criminal investigation against you that did not lead to a conviction. We can remind the Board of Pharmacy that police only need reasonable suspicion to investigate, when suspicion is not evidence. The Board of Pharmacy may properly decide to initiate a disciplinary investigation because of a criminal investigation and may use evidence the criminal investigation gathers, but the criminal investigation itself bears no weight, especially when it does not lead to a conviction.
License Discipline Effect of New Mexico Criminal Arrest
The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy must also not consider the fact of your arrest without a conviction. We can remind the Board of Pharmacy that an arrest requires only probable cause, not evidence, and that no charges or conviction shows that authorities had insufficient evidence to support that you committed a chargeable crime.
License Discipline Effect of New Mexico Criminal Charge
The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy must also not consider your criminal charge when no conviction results. We can remind the Board of Pharmacy that a prosecutor abandons a criminal charge or the court dismisses it when it lacks supporting evidence at the preliminary hearing or a later motion shows constitutional violations.
License Discipline Effect of New Mexico Criminal Conviction
While the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy may properly take your criminal conviction as proving you committed the crime, we may still be able to show that the court or executive relieved you of the conviction, your conviction was not for one of the listed disqualifying crimes, you completed your rehabilitation, you otherwise have a clean criminal and disciplinary record and strong academic and employment record, and you are no risk to pharmacy customers or the pharmacy profession.
New Mexico Pharmacist’s Duty to Report Crime Issues
New Mexico Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-13 requires you to renew your license annually on the forms that the Board of Pharmacy supplies. Those forms generally require you to disclose your criminal conviction or other potentially disqualifying events since your last renewal. Do not attempt to conceal your conviction, or you may lose your license or renewal due to credential fraud disciplinary charges. We can help you determine your duty to report and help you make your disclosure in the context appropriate to avoid, defend, or defeat disciplinary charges.
New Mexico Pharmacist Licensing Procedures
New Mexico Pharmacy Act Section 61-11-20 requires the Board of Pharmacy to comply with the New Mexico Administrative Procedures Act codified at New Mexico Statutes Section 12-8-1 et seq., when pursuing disciplinary charges. We can invoke the Procedures Act’s protections to present your defense evidence at a formal hearing for your best result. If you have already lost your hearing, let us take your administrative appeal or seek civil court relief under the Procedures Act.
Premier New Mexico Pharmacist License Defense
Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your best disciplinary outcome. We help hundreds of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals in New Mexico and nationwide successfully defend their disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly qualified attorney representation.