PORTLAND (AP) – Pharmacists are in short supply in Maine.

A recent survey of chain drug stores shows that Maine has the worst pharmacist shortage in New England and the second worst in the country, behind California.

Some states had regional shortages, but Maine and others had the problem in “all areas,” according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the trade group that conducted the survey in January.

Retail pharmacies are unable to say for sure why Maine has a harder time than other states finding pharmacists. Some blame the absence of a pharmacy school in Maine and the state’s perennial “brain drain” problem in which homegrown talent leaves for job and educational opportunities elsewhere.

What is certain is that a graying state like Maine will need more pharmacists to fill prescriptions for a population that is living longer than ever.

Pharmacies across the state have been forced to scale back hours in recent years as vacant positions go unfilled. Pharmacists have been working overtime, spurring concerns about patient safety.

The market for pharmacists in Maine has become so competitive that retailers and headhunters regularly try to lure pharmacists from rival stores by dangling attractive benefits packages and retirement plans.

For students coming out of pharmacy schools, recruiters offer stock options and salaries that begin at $70,000.

But when everybody is offering top dollar, money becomes less of a bargaining chip.

“The big one for me is family, and I’d hate to be way off in the Midwest, away from everybody,” said Joe Peterson, 19, of South Portland, who is in the second year of a six-year pharmacy program at Northeastern University. He said he would consider work in Maine.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy estimate that the country will have a shortfall of 157,000 pharmacists by 2020, meaning the 260,000 available druggists will be stretched even further.

The number of pharmacists registered in Maine has grown a couple hundred to 1,362 in recent years but some have begun to move to warmer retirement communities in the south, taking their licenses with them, according to Anne Head, director of the state Office of Licensing and Registration.

Head said shortages concern state regulators because of the increased chance for medication errors.

“Let’s say that one pharmacist is capable of filling 20 prescriptions per hour. If he or she has been forced to do 40 an hour, that addresses the need to get the prescription filled but it doesn’t fulfill the need to produce an accurate prescription,” Head said.

AP-ES-07-31-03 0748EDT