Rodney Diffendaffer of Rodney’s Clinic Pharmacy on Main Street in Aspen has regained his pharmacy license from the Colorado State Board of Pharmacy.

    “Rodney Diffendaffer’s pharmacy license is once again active — with conditions,” said Chris Lines, public information officer for the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, which oversees the Colorado State Board of Pharmacy. “So yes, he can practice pharmacy, but he is under probation.”

    Diffendaffer, 39, is now back working at the pharmacy on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

    Diffendaffer’s license was suspended in August 2006, after an audit the year before by the Colorado State Board of Pharmacy found that nearly 3,000 painkillers were missing from the pharmacy’s inventory, including Oxycontin, Demerol, Percocet and Norco pills.

    After the audit turned up the missing pills, Diffendaffer signed a public document issued by the state agency agreeing that “the audit revealed multiple controlled-substance record-keeping deficiencies, despite prior written warnings concerning such deficiencies. The audit further revealed that large amounts of controlled substances were unaccounted for.”

    Since the audit and his suspension from the profession, Diffendaffer has been working hard to regain his license.

    He had to retake two pharmacy tests offered by the state and had to take 110 hours of continuing education classes.

    “I had to work my butt off to get my license back,” Diffendaffer said. “It took me a long time to study and be prepared for the tests. It was not an easy thing for me.”

    Diffendaffer graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a pharmacy degree in 1995. Shortly afterward, he bought Tom’s Clinic Pharmacy from Tom Melberg and changed the name to Rodney’s Clinic Pharmacy.

    Diffendaffer’s two-year probationary period ends in August and requires quarterly audits of the inventory of prescription pills at the pharmacy.

    As a result of the state’s actions, Diffendaffer shifted the ownership of the pharmacy to Thomas Gierwatoski, 38, of Thornton, Colo., who is an experienced pharmacist.

    Although the ownership has changed, Diffendaffer said he still receives 90 percent of the profits from the pharmacy and has an option to repurchase the pharmacy from Gierwatoski when he is cleared to do so by the state.

    But as far as the state is concerned, Gierwatoski is the current owner and pharmacy manager of record for Rodney’s Clinic Pharmacy,

    When talking with both Diffendaffer and Gierwatoski, it is not easy to understand fully the ownership situation at the pharmacy.

    “I own 100 percent of the shares of the corporation,” Gierwatoski said recently. “He (Diffendaffer) has no ownership interest.”

    But Diffendaffer said he was still the “main investor” in the business.

    Whatever the case, Gierwatoski also confirmed that his arrangement with Diffendaffer will allow Diffendaffer to re-purchase the pharmacy when he is qualified to do so.

    In any event, Diffendaffer is happy to be back behind the counter at the pharmacy and is looking to re-establishing the relationships with his customers that he has built over his 13 years in town.

    “I apologize to people for what happened,” Diffendaffer said. “I had to learn the hard way and it was not easy for me to go through this process.”

    Diffendaffer maintains that the missing pills discovered by the state’s audit were the result of a dishonest former employee stealing from him.

    “I’ve learned that I really can’t trust anyone,” Diffendaffer said. “I’ve never done anything wrong and I just want to help people in town.”
bgs@aspendailynews.com