It’s time for Joey McLafferty to retire.

The veteran pharmacist is popular in Rangeley, but his continued scrapes with state regulators and police irreparably breaks any lingering belief in his ability to responsibly dispense, and warehouse, medications. The latest incident, the mis-filling of a diabetes prescription, is the last straw.

McLafferty has been fined and placed on a year’s probation by the Maine Board of Pharmacy for the miscue, a harmless act if viewed in isolation, but a troubling sign given his past problems, highlighted by the theft of narcotic medications from his pharmacy, Riddle’s, by his employees in 2004.

The second-generation pharmacist, whose father started dispensing medications in Rangeley in 1939, is also facing trial following a December arrest for driving under the influence. It’s alleged McLafferty nearly struck another vehicle, and was found with a blood alcohol level close to twice the legal limit.

This accusation shreds trust, and should give pause for any customer – or potential customer – of Riddle’s Pharmacy to have their prescriptions filled. McLafferty was given his second chance in 2005, when his pharmacy license was returned by the state following a lengthy suspension.

At what point, however, does it become irrefutably clear that McLafferty’s credibility is lost? This is not an indictment of McLafferty’s past, or his deep roots in Rangeley, but rather a plain-spoken assessment of the danger that irresponsible dispensing and management of pharmaceuticals creates.

And it begs the question for state pharmacy overseers about their standards for appropriate conduct, for a year’s probation seems like light punishment for a violator with McLafferty’s history. This time, the Board of Pharmacy found, no patients were harmed from the mistake of diabetes medication.

If convicted of impaired driving, however, the state would be right to take a stronger stance. McLafferty was warned in 2005 about alcohol consumption, when allegations about on-the-job drinking were circulated in connection with the theft of narcotics by his teenage employees.

Two portraits of McLafferty exist. One as the community pharmacist, whose family has treated generations of Rangeley-area residents with professionalism and compassion. The other, less flattering image, is of a reckless person whose control over his medications, and perhaps himself, has slipped.

If he is truly the former, McLafferty should quietly retire and not risk having everything taken away.