AN ACT requiring criminal background checks for applicants for pharmacist licensure.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 90‑85.15 reads as rewritten:
"§ 90‑85.15.  Application, qualifications, and criminal record check for licensure as a pharmacist; prerequisites.
(a)	Each applicant for licensure under this Article as a pharmacist shall file an application with the Executive Director on the form furnished by the Board, verified under oath, setting forth all of the following:
(1)	The applicant's name.
(2)	The applicant's age.
(3)	The place at which and the time that the applicant has spent in the study of pharmacy.
(4)	The applicant's experience in compounding and dispensing prescriptions under the supervision of a pharmacist. 

(b)	The Board shall license an applicant to practice pharmacy if, in addition to completing an application as specified in subsections (a) of this section, the applicant meets all of the following qualifications:
(1)	Holds an undergraduate degree from a school of pharmacy approved by the Board. 
(2)	Has had up to one year of experience, approved by the Board, under the supervision of a pharmacist.
(3)	Has passed the required examination offered by the Board.
(4)	Has appeared at a time and place designated by the Board and submitted to an examination as to the applicant's qualifications for being licensed. The applicant must demonstrate to the Board the physical and mental competency to practice pharmacy.
(c)	
The Board shall require each applicant to provide the Board with a criminal record report. All applicants shall obtain criminal record reports from one or more reporting services designated by the Board to provide criminal record reports. The Board shall keep all information obtained pursuant to this subsection privileged, in accordance with applicable State law and federal guidelines, and the information shall be confidential and shall not be a public record under Chapter 132 of the General Statutes. Applicants are required to pay the designated reporting service for the cost of these reports."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective January 1, 2018.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 26th day of June, 2017.

	s/	 Daniel J. Forest
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Tim Moore
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Roy Cooper
	 Governor

Approved 4:16 p.m. this 20th day of July, 2017