GARDINER – Rangeley’s only pharmacy will be closed today and all prescription drugs removed after the state suspended the license of owner Joey McLafferty on Tuesday.
McLafferty, a Rangeley resident and the sole pharmacist at Riddle’s Pharmacy on Main Street, is accused of filling prescriptions while impaired and 10 other violations, state officials said Tuesday.
Three former teenage clerks were charged last month with stealing and selling prescription drugs from the business by using the safe combination that was written on the office wall.
State officials are removing all prescription drugs today under state police escort, and the pharmacy section of the business will be closed, said senior pharmacy inspector Gregory Cameron of the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation.
The nearest pharmacies are 43 miles in away in Farmington: Howard’s Rexall, Hannaford, Rite Aid and Wal-Mart.
Cameron said he would call customers who have prescriptions already filled at Riddle’s to have them pick them up, and he will explain their options. He said he would work with a local health clinic and pharmacies in Farmington to see which one would be willing to take the records of customers.
A consent agreement was to be sent to McLafferty that requires him to admit the violations, give up his license, pay up to $500 in costs, pay a $2,000 fine and agree to a hearing in 30 days, according to the Maine Board of Pharmacy.
McLafferty could hire another pharmacist and reopen the pharmacy.
McLafferty answered the phone at the store Tuesday afternoon and said it was open and he was aware his license was suspended. He declined further comment.
The Maine Board of Pharmacy’s emergency 30-day suspension came after a recommendation from a state complaint committee and evidence presented by Cameron on Tuesday at the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation Gardiner Annex.
Cameron told the board he was called by Rangeley Police Chief Phil Weymouth on May 11 to investigate possible missing drugs at the pharmacy.
Cameron conducted a 16-day audit and discovered 1,300 prescription drug tablets missing, he said.
Rangeley police charged three Rangeley girls, ages 15 and 16, in late May, with theft of prescription drugs and trafficking in prescription drugs. Two of them were clerks at the store and the third was a former clerk.
Weymouth said the girls were stealing prescription drugs, taking them as well as selling them. The charges will be dealt with in juvenile court.
The girls told police they knew the combination to the drug safe.
At Tuesday’s video presentation, Cameron pointed to the combination written on the wall behind a bottle of rubbing alcohol.
Cameron offered a video taken in May that showed McLafferty drinking a beer during a lunch break. He said he also followed him from the pharmacy to a restaurant and watched him drink two beers and go back to work.
Cameron also said that on May 16 and May 21, McLafferty had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath.
The inspector said during one visit, the safe, where most narcotics are kept, was open, and while he was conducting an audit of the drugs, both the pharmacist and a pharmacy technician went out of the store, leaving the prescription drug area unsecured.
The technician also pulled him aside, Cameron said, and told him there was a report to the pharmacy the previous year of drugs stolen, but it was not reported to police or the state board. An in-house audit discovered a small discrepancy, and the issue was taken care of internally, Cameron said.
Cameron also had photos that showed no door separating the prescription filling area from the rest of the store, which pharmacy rules require, and the security alarm was not activated.
Cameron said he gave McLafferty a time frame to fix the violations.
McLafferty sent a response Monday, the inspector said, saying the security alarm system was reactivated, weekly inventories were being done, a narcotics log updated, all narcotics were inside the safe or locked cabinet and the accused teenagers has been dismissed from the pharmacy.
Maine Board of Pharmacy Chairman Mark Polli said Tuesday that the board needed to protect the health and safety of the public.
McLafferty’s father, Joseph, bought Riddle’s Pharmacy in 1939 and operated the business with his wife, Lurlene, until his death in 1980. After that, she worked at the business with their son Joey until retiring in November 2000 at the age of 93. She died in May 2001.
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