US eases prescription requirements for opioid treatment

US loosens restrictions on buprenorphine, a drug that helps with opioid cravings, amid record overdose deaths.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has announced new rules easing the prescription of a medication that helps those suffering from opioid addiction. The guidelines announced on Tuesday mean doctors and other health workers will no longer need extra hours of training to prescribe buprenorphine, a gold standard medicine that helps with cravings. And they no longer have to refer patients to counselling services. Acting Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Regina LaBelle told a press briefing the US is seeing a record number of overdose deaths with the “majority of those who died this year so far from an overdose involving opioids, mainly illicitly-manufactured fentanyl”.